


to fly again

by ocheanic



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Angst, Aobajousai, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fluff, Follows Canon, Injury, Karasuno, Kitagawa Daiichi, Reader-Insert, Shiratorizawa, Slow Burn, Volleyball, you play volleyball too look at you go!, you're oikawa's sister
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-03-27
Updated: 2019-06-27
Packaged: 2019-12-25 12:09:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 9
Words: 45,591
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18260993
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ocheanic/pseuds/ocheanic
Summary: Your third year volleyball season was cut short at Kitagawa Daiichi Middle School by a knee condition caused by overworking yourself. You don’t really remember how this came to be— you recall throwing the ball up in the air to practice a jump serve, and the next thing you remember was being down on the ground with a throbbing knee. It was an abrupt end to your season, one filled with tears and despair.Six weeks away from volleyball has done some damage to you. It's clipped you of your wings to fly and thrown you hard onto the ground. But with a new year and fresh start awaiting you at Karasuno High School, you find yourself ready to fly again.





	1. the broken bird

**Author's Note:**

> hello and welcome! thanks for giving this a chance, even though i'm not the best person at writing LOL
> 
> i'm planning to follow the events of the manga/anime, so potential spoilers if you haven't watched up to at least season 3 of the anime! i'm not too sure when i'll end it off tbh. this will most likely be a long fic, but i'll try and update weekly!
> 
> well that was my mini-intro to the story. thanks for reading and i hope you enjoy :)

  
  


“The good news is that it doesn’t seem to be arthritis, Oikawa-san,” the young doctor looks at your mother. She breathes out a sigh of relief, shooting you a look.

“But that was the good news,” the doctor continues. “Your daughter isn’t exactly in the clear, Oikawa-san. Yes, it isn’t juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. But instead, it’s patellofemoral pain syndrome.”

You raise an eyebrow at the fancy name. _Pain syndrome?_ Trying to lighten the atmosphere, you add in your two cents of thought. “Well, it can’t be any worse than arthritis, right?”

The doctor frowns. Your heart drops. Your mom shoots you another look after she registers the doctor’s reaction. Her expression screams ‘I told you so’.

“Well, yes, it isn’t worse than arthritis. PPS is often called ‘runner’s knee’ or ‘jumper’s knee’. You see, Oikawa-san, it normally occurs when there’s overuse of the knee. Given your history in which you said you play volleyball competitively, the repeated movement and force of your knees could have caused this. Ah, you also mentioned you stay back and practice late either by yourself or with your brother when normal afterschool practice is over. And it was a jump serve you were working on? The repeated daily stress on your knees from the landing and building up to the jump would have pushed your knee to its limit, I’m afraid.

“In your case, the overuse of your knee has caused some irritation under the kneecap. But there seems to be some muscles imbalances and weaknesses as well. Normally, when you bend your knees, there’s a groove that it moves up and down in. With the muscle weakness around your knee, the kneecap moves to the side slightly instead of it’s normal up and down. That can cause more pain.

“Matching it with your symptoms of pain when walking and exercise, sitting for a long time, and popping sounds of your knee with some swelling sometimes, it seems to be a perfect match. Although there isn’t a need to worry, PPS can be treated easily. I’d personally recommend at least six weeks of physical therapy to help with the muscle imbalances and to get your knee moving properly again. During physiotherapy, I strongly suggest you focus on stretching your quadriceps since they are the main stabilizers of your kneecap. Once again, the good news is that this is easily treatable and you’ll feel as good as new after it.

“However, this is the bad news…” The doctor pauses from his small monologue of treatment options and diagnosis to gauge you and your mom’s reactions. You can’t see your mom’s face, as you’re sitting on the examination bed and your mom is sitting next to the doctor’s table with her back facing you. Frankly, you’re glad you can’t. You can feel the evil aura radiating from where you’re sitting.

Your reaction isn’t too bad. You’re glad that you don’t have arthritis, as it’d completely hinder your volleyball playing permanently. Although you’re not too happy with PPS, it’s so much better than the former diagnosis. You’re fortunate.

“You won’t be able to play volleyball until your knee is fully healed.”

Alright, maybe you aren’t as fortunate as you think. You freeze. Your heart sinks to your stomach. “What…?”

The doctor shakes his head. “I’m sorry about that, Oikawa-san. With the overuse and stress that your knee is currently under, continuing to play volleyball will only make PPS worse. Although it is rare, if your knee gets worse, there may need to be surgical treatment. If that occurs, you’ll only find yourself being away from volleyball longer. I know it’s going to be hard not playing the sport you love for what seems like an eternity, but it’s the best option for the long run.”

You frown. You’ve worked so hard this past month to perfect your serves, your spikes, for the upcoming Junior High Athletics Meet. You’re currently the third-year ace of your team. How would Kitagawa Daiichi’s girls’ team fair without their ace? Especially at a time like this, with the meet coming in a little over a week? Your frown somehow deepens as you think of yourself breaking the news to your team and coaches while watching their disappointed expressions.

“Low-impact activities won’t do much harm, although I suggest you be extra careful with them. A knee brace would help and support your knee during it. It isn’t completely necessary to purchase one as they can be quite expensive, but it is a good option to consider.”

You nod as you listen to the doctor’s advice. He’s most likely right. Besides, it’s your fault for overworking yourself in the first place. If you had listened to your teammates' concerns and not practiced as hard as you did, you wouldn’t be in such a predicament. The most important thing you can focus on now is to make a full recovery, despite your constant need of being around volleyball.

Your gaze drops to your hands that are wrapped around one another. You’re ashamed. _I really want to play this year. I want to defeat Shiratorizawa and see the look on their faces when they realize that they aren’t the ones heading to Nationals this year._

“Thank you for your hard work, doctor.” Your mom says, standing up and bowing at him. You follow and do the same. The doctor smiles and stands himself.

“I wish you the best of luck in volleyball, Oikawa-san.”

“Thank you,” you force a smile out as you and your mom make your way out of the doctor’s office and back into the waiting room of the hospital.

Your mom doesn’t say anything to you, which is worrisome. Normally she’d be the first person to comment on your tendencies to overwork yourself and would constantly fret over you. The silence as the both of your exit the hospital is unbearable.

“You know how I feel about this, right, Y/N?” Your mother says abruptly when you both are seated in her car. She looks over to you in the passenger’s seat with an expression bearing disappointment you don’t think you’ll ever be able to forget. You nod, lips forming a thin line. You await a mini-lecture from her.

“Good. I’m not going to lecture you, because I think you’re probably berating yourself in your own mind, right?” She hits the nail on the head. The entire time the two of you were walking to the car, you were yelling at yourself in your mind, cursing your stupidity. You nod once again, not able to gather the words to form a proper reply.

Your mom sighs, reaching for your hands that are folded in your lap. She squeezes them. “You’ll be fine, Y/N. You’ll be as good as new in six weeks.”

She lets go of your hands and starts the car, pulling out of the parking spot and to the local pharmaceutical place to purchase a knee brace for you.

_In six weeks, school will be over. I won’t even be able to play in the final tournament of my junior high volleyball career._

—

When you arrive home, you’re met with your annoying older brother you can’t help but love and the childhood friend you both share.

“Y/N!” The boy exclaims when he sees your enter through the door, your mom following closely behind you. Your mom squeezes your shoulder and pushes you lightly towards your brother and your friend. She greets the duo before walking up the stairs to let the three of you talk.

You look at the kitchen island, where your brother’s currently seated. Beside him is your friend. There are two white plates containing food on it placed in front of the duo. They must’ve arrived home a while ago before you did.

Your brother gestures you over to the island. You follow his gesture and take a seat across from him and your friend.

“So, what did the doctor say?” He asks. You sigh, your grip on the box of your knee brace tightens unconsciously. You’ve completely forgotten that you’re holding it.

You drop the box of the knee brace on the table with a grimace. It lands with a loud thud, skidding over to the boys’ side of the table. Your eyes burn holes through the packaging. “I’m really stupid, Tooru, Hajime.”

You feel two pairs of eyes drill through your head. Your head rests on your hand with your elbow propped on the table. You don’t have the heart to look up and meet the gazes of the duo. You don’t want to see what kind of disappointed expressions currently rest on their faces.

“Y/N…” Tooru starts, then pauses. He seems to be gathering his words.

“I overworked myself,” you say before Tooru has a chance to continue. “I practiced too much and strained my knee. My muscles are weak too, around it. My kneecap doesn’t move up and down correctly and moves slightly to the side. It can be fixed though, with six weeks of physiotherapy and…”

You take a deep breath. You didn’t want to say it out loud. It would be like you’re accepting your defeat.

“And?” Hajime prompts you.

“I can’t play volleyball during that time.”

With the completion of your sentence, it really does feel like you’re accepting your defeat. You saying it out loud is like a slap to the face, or having a bucket of ice cold water dumped on you. You finally will yourself to look up, meeting the eyes of Tooru first before moving to Hajime. They’re unreadable.

“I’m sorry,” Tooru says with a frown on his face.

You let out a dry laugh. “For what?”

“I shouldn’t have shown you that jump serve, or encouraged you to do extra practice with me. It only made you want to work harder. Look where that has gotten you.” Tooru looks at you with guilt in his eyes.

You furrow your brows, “you seriously can’t be blaming yourself for something _I_ did to myself, not you. This is not your fault, Tooru!”

Hajime nods. “Trashykawa, you’ve even mentioned to Y/N that you didn’t want her practicing much after her teammates leave. You always limit her practicing time when she joins us at Aoba Johsai, too.”

“But… she did almost the exact same thing I did. A knee injury because of overworking yourself.” Tooru admits. He head falls down, breaking your eye contact to stare at his dinner in shame.

“Hey,” you say. Tooru looks up. “At we’ll twin now, right?”

There’s a strained look on your face either boys notice but don’t comment on. Tooru appreciates your effort on cheering him up, anyway. He doesn’t let it go in vain.

“That’s right!” Tooru says with an overly cheery tone in his voice. “You’ll be following in my footsteps!”

Hajime whacks Tooru on his head, “I don’t think following in your footsteps in a good thing for Y/N, Trashykawa.”

A contorted look appears on your face. The ‘following in my footsteps’ thing is a joke that the three of you found yourself making often. As a proud member of the Oikawa family, you take pride in saying that you’re a volleyball player. Many people claim that you’re ‘following in your brother’s footsteps’, to which you’d roll your eyes and reply with a sarcastic retort. Besides, you aren’t _completely_ following in Tooru’s footsteps. He’s a setter and you’re a wing spiker. Big difference, even though Tooru’s the one who got you into volleyball in the first place.

With a reminder of the joke, you laugh, spreading a smile of both boys’ faces. They don’t like to see you upset, and with the news of you not being able to play volleyball for a long time truly made you look defeated. As well as you think you’re hiding it, the duo is easily able to see the hurt on your face and how much you blame yourself. It’s a look they never want to see on your face again.

With the tense atmosphere lifting, the three of you chat about your day. The two boys try to make you laugh as much as possible, with the goal of making you temporarily forget about your injury. The accomplish it with ease, with Tooru making a dumb comment almost every other sentence and having Hajime smack him back to his senses, literally.

Soon 7 pm arrives. Hajime announces that it’s time for him to leave. As you as Tooru watch your childhood friend walk back to his home from the entrance of your house, Tooru places his hands on your shoulders and turns you to face him. His stare is intense. You find yourself unintentionally gulping.

“Promise me,” he starts. His voice is firm.

“What?” You ask.

“You won’t overwork yourself anymore. Iwa-chan was right about it not being a good idea that you follow my footsteps. Look at what it’s done to me, and now you.”

“You know I can’t promise that. I love that goddamn sport too much. But I’ll try my best, only if you do too.”

“Okay.”

You smile at Tooru, “good. I will too, then.”

Tooru squeezes your shoulders before letting go. A familiar smirk appears onto his face. “Now now, Y/N-chan. You’ve had enough free time. Go do your homework before you lose all the information you have in there to volleyball.”

Your eyebrow twitches. Tooru’s run off, but you waste no time in chasing after him. “Get back here, Trashykawa!”


	2. revelation

That night, despite the efforts of Tooru and Hajime, you find yourself crying yourself to sleep. At first, you’re lying peacefully in your bed. Then you think of the next day’s early morning practice and how in the world you’re going to wake up in time for that. You’re not an early bird whatsoever.

Then you’re reminded of the fact that you can’t play.

It comes suddenly, the tears. You’re only thinking about how much you’re about to disappoint the team. They don’t know about your knee condition or about anything that’s happened. You didn’t mention it to them and the coach, because you’re scared that they would bench you.

You were able to go three weeks with hiding the fact that there was something wrong with your knee, until one day where your knee hurt too much to walk. You decided to leave school early that day, to which your mom found out. She questioned you about your actions. You had to come clean then, which brought you to your current situation.

You can only imagine their reaction when in a couple of hours, you’ll be telling them you can’t play.

How funny that your fear of not being able to play is coming true. Maybe if you brought up your knee pain to your mom sooner, you wouldn’t be in this predicament right now.

But it’s too late now to regret not doing something about it sooner, right? You let out a choked noise—something in between a laugh and a sob.

You love volleyball way too much to be away from it for so long. It is Tooru who first introduces you to the sport. You’re seven at the time, Tooru nine. It’s a warm summer morning when he drags you outside into your backyard and places a volleyball in your small hands.

_“Okay, Y/N-chan, you’re doing this whether you like it or not. But something tells me you’re going to, so why not start now?” Tooru says. You stare at the red, white, and green ball in your hands. You’ve never seen a ball like this before._

_“What is this?” You ask your older brother as you roll the ball back and forth in your small hands._

_“It’s a volleyball!” He grins. “We played it in gym class earlier this week and I liked it so much I made mom buy one! Now I can play more, but I don’t have anyone else to do so with, except you!”_

_“There’s Hajime-kun. He’s in your class, maybe he likes it too? I’ve never played volleyball before, Tooru. I don’t even know what to do!” You retort._

_“Well, we all start off as beginners, right? You can learn, I’ll teach you! Besides, you need to pick up a sport before you turn fat!” Tooru sticks his tongue out at you, poking your stomach. You throw the volleyball at him. To your dismay, he catches it._

_“Ah, see you already want me to teach you something!” Tooru says with stars in his eyes. “Nothing to fear, big brother is here!”_

_You retch fakely at your brother’s stupid statement. Now you see why Hajime is always hitting him. “I’ll do it if you buy me ice cream after this.”_

_Tooru pouts. “My! You’re so manipulative!”_

_“So do you want me to play or not?”_

_“Fine, fine! You evil witch,” Tooru whispers the last part under his breath, but you still manage to catch it. With a swift kick to his shin, Tooru now knows to keep his snide comments in his head._

_“Let’s start with serves,” Tooru says after regaining his balance after your kick. “I’ll show you an underhand serve. It’s what most people start off with.”_

_“So you have your dominant foot back and your non-dominant foot forward like this,” Tooru demonstrates. The ball is in his left hand as his left foot is forward and right foot back. He’s bent over slightly._

_“You want to hit the volleyball on your dominant hand’s forearm. You hold the volleyball in your other hand and swing like so,” Tooru swings his right arm to where the ball is. “But you drop the ball when your arm’s close enough so it flies over the net.”_

_With that, Tooru does a full demonstration. The ball sails over the grass of the backyard and lands onto the porch with a bounce. You watch in awe. Seeing your expression, Tooru smiles._

_“Cool right?” He asks. You nod. Tooru goes and retrieves the ball before handing it to you. Like Tooru did moments earlier, you copy his position. He watches your stance with observant eyes, correcting slight errors he sees._

_“Okay, now just hit it!” Tooru says happily. You huff at his supposed words of encouragement and get to it._

_‘Just let the ball fall when your arm comes close enough. Sounds easy, okay ready. One, two—’_

_“Woah!” You can’t help but exclaim when the volleyball sails effortlessly to the porch._

_“What? I was expecting a total failure! It took me two gym classes to do a decent underhand!” Tooru sounds frustrated, to which you laugh._

_In an attempt to cheer him up, you say, “well it’s all because of your excellent coaching, nii-chan!”_

_Tooru brightens instantly. Your job is done. “If you put it that way…”_

_“Let’s keep going!”_

_For the rest of the afternoon, you and Tooru play volleyball. He teaches you the basics, serving, bumping, volleying. He says that there’s more, like setting and spiking, but he doesn’t know too much on how to do it. You make him promise that as soon as he did, he’d teach it to you._

_When your mom calls you both in for dinner, there’s a look in your eyes Tooru notices. They burn with determination and passion. He smiles. He’s glad you enjoy volleyball. You are too._

You roll over onto your side and wipe your tears with the back of your hand. You grasp your blankets tightly in your hands. Your knuckles turn white with the force you’re gripping the blankets with, but you don’t notice because of the darkness in your room.

 _The world is so cruel._ With the light in your room gone, your eyes begin to droop. The calls of sleep slowly lure you in like a siren singing to a sailor. You give in and find yourself dreaming of your matches at the athletics meet, only to realize that the only time you’d be on the court is in your dreams.

The next morning, you find yourself up before your alarm. It’s a strange thing. You normally set your alarm a half hour earlier than the time you actually need to leave your bed, because it gives you time to snooze the clock without actually being late.

Your eyes feel heavy and swollen. You can only imagine how much of a train wreck you look like right now. Sitting up in your bed, you look out the window to see the sun shining brightly outside. It would be a contrast to your day today, most likely.

You let out a sigh, pulling your warm blanket off of you. You swing your feet to the edge of your bed and stand up. Bringing your hands together behind your back, you lift them over your head and hear a satisfying _pop_! from your shoulders.

You release your hands and make your way over to your closet, where you face the first decision of the day. You’re not sure if you should wear the volleyball uniform or just your school uniform—since you probably weren’t going to be playing.

After a few minutes of weighing your decision, you slip on your familiar pair of spandex and a white t-shirt on. Your jacket hangs sloppily in your desk chair. You reach for the white and dark blue jacket before slipping it on.

After adjusting the jacket over your body, you look for the next object you need for practice. Your volleyball bag rests inside your closet. Pulling it out, you throw your knee brace into the bag and leave it near the door to the room.

Your next destination is your washroom. Walking in, you glance at yourself the mirror. Your eyes are swollen and bloodshot, but you’re sure they’ll fade quickly after washing your face. You run through your daily routine in the washroom. When you finish, you grab your volleyball bag then walk down to your kitchen to grab some breakfast.

Your mom isn’t home, as she has an early morning job that usually goes until late in the night. Your dad is currently overseas in Germany with a temporary new job placement. Tooru’s most likely still asleep. As he likes to put it, it takes at least eight hours of beauty sleep a night to fully whip out his ‘natural’ beauty for the next day.

Grabbing two slices of bread and spreading some cream cheese on it, you depart early for practice. It’s not like getting there earlier and practicing what you’re going to say to the team hurts anyone, right? You snort. Oh, the irony.

You arrive to practice twenty-five minutes before it starts. Luckily, the coaches have trusted you with a spare key after you constantly asking to borrow hers. You normally use it after you’re done your extra practice, but this time it’s different. Unlocking the door to the gym, you navigate it easily to find the light switches, despite it being pitch black inside.

The gym hums to life when the lights turn on. You decide to set up the nets for the team for when they arrive. It would shave off a couple minutes’ worth of lost practice time. Perhaps they would get a couple of extra minutes of practice in with the nets already set up and ready to go. After all, the junior high meet is only a week away.

It’s quiet in the gym, besides the shuffling of your feet and the movement of the volleyball equipment. With the deafening silence, you’re left alone to your worries again. You hate it. How there’s always a mocking voice in your head spewing hateful words. It only seemed to worsen after you found out about your knee.

You wheel out the cart of volleyballs. Unconsciously, you find yourself at the serving line. Grabbing a volleyball out of the cart, you bounce it on the floor a couple of times. It wouldn’t hurt to get _some_ serves in, right?

You decide against doing any jump serves, opting on practice your overhand serve and your aim. You hold the ball out in front of you with your non-dominant hand. Taking a deep breath in, you bend your knees and throw the volleyball up. Your left knee lights up with a familiar ache. You grimace. The ball that’s thrown up in the air falls back down without being hit.

“Goddamnit!” You shout. It’s the third attempt you’ve made with serving, but like the two prior, it’s been stopped by the pain in your knee. Your hands are itching to feel the sting of hitting the volleyball with all your might. You want to hit the volleyball over the net and across the court to release all your frustrations. But you couldn’t even do that.

What… what could do you? What could you _still_ do?

Suddenly, the door to the gym opens. In walks the coach. Your heart begins pounding rapidly in your chest.

“Oh, Oikawa. I thought I hear your voice in here,” the coach says. You force a smile onto your face as you greet her.

“What’re you doing here so early? I thought you only stayed after practices,” the coach inquires. You place the volleyball back into the cart and make your way over to the bench where your coach stands.

“Shinji-san, there’s something really important I need to tell you.” You gulp, steeling yourself for what’s to come.

“Oh! Don’t tell me you got into Niiyama Joshi! I know how much you want to go there, even if your older brother doesn’t approve of it,” the coach laughs. Your heart twists painfully. Would you even be able to go to Niiyama Joshi? Most people go there through a sports scholarship, and with the knee issue you have going on now, it seems impossible. Perhaps you could take the entrance exam, but that’s incredibly hard as well.

Your coach notices the frown on your face. “Shinji-san, I…”

Your voice cracks. You curse yourself in your mind for not being able to keep it together.

“Oikawa? Are you alright?” She asks, placing a comforting hand on your shoulder that feels like the weight of letting her down.

“No. I,” your gaze meets your coach’s concerned ones. “I’ve injured myself.”

There, you said it. You’ve said it twice in the past twenty-four hours, and a third time is coming in about ten minutes. Each time you say it, you come more to terms with it. But it doesn’t mean it hurts any less.

Your coach’s hand slips off your shoulder. The weight is lifted off your shoulder like the way her hand leaves it. You anticipate her answer, but she doesn’t say anything. So you fill up the silence that’s formed with an explanation.

“I wanted to learn and perfect a jump serve, so I got Tooru to help me with it. I got too carried away with extra practice and I messed up my knee. My mom took me to the hospital yesterday for a diagnosis and the doctor said it was PPS from overuse and stress. He recommended six weeks of physical therapy and told me that…” You take a deep breath. “I can’t play volleyball for the time being. I’m sorry for my actions, coach. I know I’m the ace and the vice-captain and it’s incredibly stupid of myself to get an injury at a time like this—”

“It’s okay, Oikawa.”

“Huh?” The noise of confusion slips past your lips before you could stop it.

“I can’t say I’m not happy about you being unable to participate at the meet since I was depending on you to carry the team.” You break your gaze with the coach to look at the ground, unable to stare into her eyes much longer.

“It’s really a shame. You worked so hard this year to bring the team to victory. But it’s okay. Even the best athletes in the world have setbacks, but what matters is that they always bounce back. And when they do, they’re back and better than ever. So don’t let me down any further and do your best when you come back onto the court. For now, the team will do its best to cover for the offence with iron defence.”

 _It truly is a shame_. You can’t help but think of yourself at the meet, flying in the air as the setter tosses the ball towards your waiting hand.

Before you can muster a reply, the girls' team bursts into the gym energetically. They’re talking animatedly with one another, not noticing the saddened atmosphere.

“Ah, Y/N-chan, you’re here early!” A fellow third-year wing spiker, Yutaka Kamori comments. She’s your closest friend on the team, and also the team’s captain.

“Were you practicing again?” A first-year reserve player asks. You shake your head.

“Oikawa was just talking to me about the meet,” your coach answers for you. You don’t know if she’ll be the one to let the team know that you won’t be playing. But you feel like you have an obligation to do it, being the vice-captain.

“Oh, the meet! I can’t believe it’s in a week! We’re going to win this year and go to Nationals!” Kamori pumps a fist in the air, cheering excitedly. Several murmurs of excitement follow.

“Of course! With you and Oikawa-san leading the team and blasting through the opponent’s blocks, we’ll definitely win this year!” A second-year cheers alongside the captain. You can’t help but feel guilty.

“What’s the look on your face, Y/N-chan. Don’t tell me you’re doubting our win!” Kamori comments, punching you lightly on your shoulder.

Your expression twists into a frown. “Actually, about that, I have something to tell you guys.” You raise your voice as you say your next sentence, “can everyone gather around here?”

The team obeys your wish and makes a circle around you. You find yourself in the front of the circle, next to Kamori and the coach. You look over to the latter, who gives you a nod of reassurance.

You blink slowly, thinking of what to say. “As we all know, the Junior High Athletics Meet is in a week. I know you guys have been training really hard for this and I know you’ll definitely do well.”

Kamori looks at you with an odd look. “‘You’ll do well’? Y/N-chan, we’re a team! _We_ will do well.”

You observe your teammates around the circle. They nod in agreement with Kamori’s claim.

“Well, that’s where my announcement comes in,” you unconsciously tighten your hands into fists. “I won’t be participating in the meet.”

“What?” The shocked outbursts of your teammates filled the room.

“But you’re the ace!” One of your teammates cry.

“I know.” You mumble. “I’ve injured myself because I pushed past my limits, and not in a good way. I’ve been put on rest by a doctor’s decision. Trust me, I’m not happy with it either, and I sincerely apologize for my recklessness.”

There. You’ve done it again. You’ve said the news three times now. You admit it’s gotten easier.

Beside you, Kamori shifts in her spot. She slides a hand over your shoulder and pulls you close to her. “Now, injuries aren’t fun. Especially for the person injured. It makes them feel horrible and useless, trust me, I know. What’s important for the injured person is that they receive support from their loved ones and receive the will to recover and do so well. So Y/N-chan, although I currently hate you for not listening to me about overworking yourself, I wish you a speedy recovery.”

Your eyes glisten with tears as the team echoes Kamori’s comfort and provide their own words of support. “Thanks, girls. Really. A team is a group of people supporting one another. I’m glad we are one and are able to provide this support to each other.”

“Alright!” The coach claps her hands together. The attention of the team diverts to her, the topic of your knee condition changed. “Since our might ace is out of condition, our offence is lacking! There are many talented teams at the meet and we only have a week left. My plan is to fortify our defence and fix our offence. To do so, we need to start working now! Start jogging, ladies!”

The team disperses, running around the gym. You’re still standing in your spot in the now disbanded circle, unsure of where to go. Kamori’s gone for her run, squeezing your shoulder before taking off.

The coach approaches you. “That was well done, Oikawa.”

“Thanks, coach. I’m just glad I have a supportive team and coach,” you admit, rubbing your elbow sheepishly.

“I know you’re out of commission right now, but I do hope you still come around for practice. You’re still vice-captain, after all. The girls need support, and you and Kamori-san both offer a lot of it.” The coach speaks.

“Of course. I wouldn’t dream of not coming unless I’m dying or in a hospital bed.” You say.

The coach laughs. “You’re just like your brother. Heads full with only volleyball. Speaking of which, since you’re out, I could use an extra pair of eyes with spotting weaknesses and providing feedback. Or maybe some setting? I’m not too sure if you’re able to do so. If you can’t, please don’t push yourself to. We just need to strengthen our offence right now, and spiking practice would definitely help.”

You nod. “I don’t think setting will affect me much, but if my knee hurts I’ll definitely let you know.”

“That’s good. Go gear on and head to the court,” the coach dismisses you. You walk back towards the benches where everyone leaves their volleyball bags. You locate your black bag and zip it open. You pull out one knee pad and the brace your mom’s bought for you the day before.

You slip the black knee pad onto your right leg and the brace onto your left. _It’s tight_ , you note, but you’re sure you’ll break into it. The brace is coloured a light gray, a prominent difference between that and your knee pad.

Stepping back onto the court, you notice that there’s less pain while walking. You grinned. _What a lifesaver._

By the time you’ve finished putting on your gear and arrived at the court, the girls have finished with their running. They split off into two groups and line up on the two courts set up by you. You have one group of girls, mainly composed of second-years. The second-year regular setter, Yuki, has the rest.

The coach blows her whistle and it signals the commencement of spiking practice. The first girl lined up, middle blocker Mikado, throws you the ball before taking off into the air.

You position yourself under the ball, recalling Tooru’s instructions. _Place your hands above your head, forming a small triangle where your eye peeks through to aim, and, set!_

The ball flies from your hands quickly to Mikado. She spikes it effortlessly, a large slam reverberating through the gym as the ball hits the ground.

“Nice kill!” You say to her. She smiles at you. “Thanks, Oikawa!”

The rest of practice flies by. You’re happy to still be of use and to a degree, playing. The team has been able to efficiently barricade its defence with a reserve member being subbed in. The player has libero experience but is now a wing spiker. It’s an interesting switch if you ask yourself, but you’ve done the same. You originally started off as a libero in your first year on the team but transitioned to wing spiker when you wanted to be able to also score points and barrel through blocks.

When practice is over, you find yourself in a better mood than the night before and in the morning. All your doubts about the team hating you are eased. Although they’re slightly upset, it wasn’t as bad as you imagined, but it’s understandable why they are.

You’re thankful for such a supportive team, even if it’s your last year with them. It’s unfortunate that you aren’t able to play one final game with them, but you’ll be supporting them with as much enthusiasm as if you’re in the game with them too.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> looks like our bird-chan is still getting some action with volleyball despite not being able to play!! look at her gooo :^)
> 
> the first couple of chapters is about kitagawa daiichi because it plays a role in the main plot (hint hint nudge nudge), since i will be following the canon events of haikyuu!! although i haven't caught up with it since i stopped reading at the shiratorizawa match, so i'll be spending some time rereading the series to get the plot points right haha
> 
> anyway how has your week been going? thanks for reading again :))


	3. road to recovery

When you return home from school the same day, you expect yourself to be the first one home as usual, since your mom is working and Tooru has volleyball practice after school. But that simply wasn’t the case today, to your surprise. You’re staring confusedly towards your mom, who’s happily humming to herself while preparing food in the kitchen. Then you hear a loud voice coming from up the stairs, which is definitely Tooru’s.

You walk in and greet her, asking about her early arrival home. She pleasantly replies that it wasn’t busy at her job today, so her boss let her leave early, considering that she’s been in since five in the morning and most likely burnt out.

“It’s Monday, Y/N.” Your mom deadpans when you ask about your brother and what he’s doing home so early. “He doesn’t have practice on Mondays, remember?”

“Wait, what?” You’re taken aback. “Really? I thought it was Thursday.”  

Your mom rolls her eyes playfully at you. “And that’s why you should sleep earlier during the night.”

“Hey, I do!” You defend yourself. “I need to be well-rested for practice or else Kamori-chan and Shinji-san will both murder me for my awful performance!”

“Mhmm,” your mom retorts accusingly. You pout and storm out the kitchen in fake anger.  You head towards the staircase, thoughts of diving into your bed and hiding under your blankets for the next ten years filling your mind.

“Ah, before I forget!” Your mom suddenly exclaims from the kitchen when you take the first step upstairs. At the sound of her voice, you turn around and walk back into the kitchen, where the both of you were conversing earlier.

“I scheduled your first physio appointment,” she announces when you walk back in.

You raise your eyebrows in surprise. “That fast?”

“Well, what did you expect?” Your mom crosses her arms over her chest. “You’re so love-stricken with volleyball, not being around it for even the shortest amount of time makes you upset. Imagine being away from it for six weeks and longer because I delayed getting an appointment for you.”

You appreciate your mom’s sentiment, a small smile resting on your lips. “Aw, thanks, mom.”

“Just don’t overwork yourself again, alright?” She asks of you.

“I’ll try,” you promise, although you’re not too sure if you’ll follow through with that. As soon as you’re fully healed, you’re planning on doing some extra practice to catch up on the things you’re _definitely_ going to be missing out on.

“Dinner will be ready soon, so don’t do anything that’ll take up a bunch of time,” your mom says as she continues to chop up some vegetables.

“Okay,” you reply. You wait a couple of seconds for her to follow up with any afterthoughts like before, but she doesn’t. With the conversation concluded, you turn and make your way up the stairs again.

As you walk down the hallway to get to your room, you happen to pass by Tooru’s room. The door is shut, but his voice can be heard as loudly and clearly as day. No wonder why you could hear it from the kitchen and the foyer. From the volume of his voice, you’re forced to listen in to what he’s saying. Tooru seems to be talking with someone over the phone, and by his constant whining, it’s probably Hajime.

You suppress a laugh when Tooru mentions being rejected by a girl that seems to want nothing to do with him. You couldn’t blame the girl for having a brain. You don’t catch the rest of the conversation, unfortunately, as you arrive in front of your room.

Your room isn’t too big nor too small. The walls are a soft f/c, with fairy lights hanging around the perimeter of the ceiling. Beside the door is a small wall that juts out and separates it from your closet. You pull out your sweaty clothes from practice this morning and throw them into the laundry basket. Your bag is thrown into the closet afterwards.

Removing your jacket, you place it back onto your desk chair, which is on the left-hand side of your room. Your dresser is next to your desk with your full-length mirror leaning against the wall behind it. Your bed is opposite to your closet. Above your bed are photos of your volleyball team, your family, and medals from tournaments hanging proudly. There’s not much in your room, nor is it decorated astonishingly, but it still feels warm and comfortable. That’s all you could ask for.

Luckily, you have your own bathroom in your room, with the entrance to it being next to your desk. You look for some comfortable clothing to change into and head into the bathroom.

From there, you take a fifteen-minute shower (which is less than the amount of time Tooru takes, mind you) and slip on a hoodie and shorts afterwards. The school uniform you were wearing today finds its way into the laundry basket, joining the clothes you put in there earlier.

When you finish your shower, your mom calls you down for dinner. It’s some pretty good timing if you ask yourself. You didn’t have anything else to do if dinner wasn’t ready by the time you finished your shower.

You oblige happily to your mom’s call, hungry from the day’s hard work. You walk into the hallway, which is drowning in Tooru’s loud voice. You roll your eyes and pass his room at first, but turn around when you near the stairs. You figure that he probably didn’t hear your mom since he’s _so_ busy on the phone. Knocking on his door, you tell him that dinner’s ready, to which he hums and says he’ll be down soon.

When you make it downstairs, the familiar scent of (favourite food) fills your sense of smell. You walk a little faster towards the kitchen, ignoring the slight throb of your knee, eager to confirm your hypothesis.

“Did you make (favourite food)?” You ask your mom. She’s setting up the table with her back facing you.

“Yeah, I did! I figured you needed something to cheer you up since there’s a lot going on in your life right now, and it’s definitely not so fun for you.” Your mom’s expression is grim when she turns around to face you. It alarms you, considering her tone was cheery seconds ago. “Don’t you think for a second that I didn’t notice your swollen eyes, Y/N.”

“O-oh,” you stutter. Your hands come up to pinch your eyelids. Your mom’s right, they’re still swollen. “I thought they would’ve gone down by now.”

Your mom sighs, pointing at you with a spoon sharply before waving it around. “Cheer up, honey. After all, your team was supportive about your knee, right? They didn’t give you a hard time?”

You huff and head over to your mom, helping her set up the table. “No, they didn’t. They’re upset but it’s understandable. Shinji-san wants me helping with setting and providing feedback. I’m just happy I can still be of use.”

“‘Still be of use’? What’s that supposed to mean? You are useful!” Your mom cries, placing another spoon on the table a little too forcefully. “There are other ways to support a team than just playing on the court! You can be cheering for them, give them water and sweat towels during breaks, providing feedback, anything, really! Do not doubt your worth just because you can’t play on the court.”

Your expression changes to an apologetic one. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry.”

“Now you’re apologizing! Oh my, what has your knee done to your brain? Normally it’s your brain that controls your knee, not the other way around,” your mom jokes. The atmosphere in the kitchen lightens with it.

The corner of your lips curls upward slightly. You don’t have the time to come up with a funny reply, as Tooru makes his grand entrance into the kitchen.

“Ah, Y/N’s favourite food! I thought I smelled it from the staircase,” he comments while passing you to sit in a chair. You follow his actions along with your mom, sitting down as well. With a ‘thanks for the meal’ slipping past your lips, you dig into the food, the marvellous taste of your favourite food melting easily into your mouth.

 

—

 

The next day, volleyball practice is after school. There are now six days left until the Junior High Athletics Meet. Despite the fact that you’re not playing, you couldn’t help but feel a little nervous.

The team has been doing spiking drills for the majority of today’s practice. You predict that having the preponderance of practices dedicated to spiking drills will be a common occurrence now, most likely until the tournament. As the rest of the team are spiking, you’re setting the ball for them as a setter on the second court again.

“Nice kill!” You compliment as your teammate does a sharp straight.

“Only because of your set, Oikawa-san!” She winks at you. You flush out of embarrassment.

When you were first learning the basics of volleyball, setting was a skill you couldn't do easily. Putting setting aside for a moment, just volleying was difficult for you. Even with Tooru's guidance,  you couldn’t figure out what you were doing wrong. The ball would always go in a direction you didn't want it to, which was undoubtedly frustrating for both of you.

You nearly shudder when you recall your two sprained thumbs as a result of not volleying properly. The right thumb was the first to go down. Four days later, the left went down too.

You admit there’s a small fear of spraining your thumbs again every time you set a ball. Unquestionably, the time both your thumbs were sprained was not a good time. One sprained thumb was enough, but with two, your hands were practically rendered useless. Sure they were still of use, but doing trivial things required three minutes of a horrible struggle to be able to do them.

However, ever since you did sprain them, Tooru had managed to figure out what you were doing incorrectly and helped you fix the issue. (Not without taunting you occasionally about your thumbs, though). You’re grateful for his aid, despite the earlier fact. You nearly shudder again when you think of what could’ve become of the rest of your fingers if he hadn’t fixed the issue you had with volleying.

When the coach blows her whistle, you’re brought back from your small flashback. She motions everyone to come over to where she’s standing. You relocate to where she is with the rest of the team.

“Alright, everyone. All of your spikes have gotten so much better, despite the limited time we’ve had to work on it. I’m proud of your guys’ adaptability. It’s a skill you’ll definitely need in high school volleyball, as there are many experienced players there.

“That being said, we’re going to transfer over to practicing receives. In particular, diving and rolling receives,” the coach announces. The groans of the team are almost instantaneous after hearing the words ‘diving’ and ‘rolling’ before ‘receive’.

“I’ll be spiking the ball down at you guys from the other side of the net. Make sure to pay attention to my form and hand to pinpoint where the ball will be landing. Go get set up,” she finishes. The team disperses back onto the court.

The coach turns to you, the only one still standing by her side. “If you could, Oikawa, taking notes about the girls’ form and technique will be very helpful for all of them, since they could fix their mistakes and improve from it.”

You nod. “Of course!”

Turning around, the coach grabs a notebook and pencil and hands it to you. She then carries a chair over to the first court and stands on it, while you wheel a cart of volleyballs next to her.

Afterwards, you find a safe spot to sit and observe your teammates without being hit. It’s on the same side of the court as the receiver, so you'll be able to examine her form. You choose to sit near the wall. It’s far enough back; you won’t get in the receiver’s way.

You don’t much time to adjust yourself comfortably against the wall, as the coach has already started spiking the ball down. Your analytical eyes observe the forms of your teammates as they dive after each spike. You jot down every error you notice, big or small.

Soon enough, practice for the day has finished. With a cramping right hand, you hand back the notebook to the coach. She beams at you when she sees multiple pages worth of corrections.

 

—

 

Practice for the next few days flies by with a blink of an eye. It’s now the day before the tournament and also the first day of your six week long physiotherapy. It’s around 5:30pm when practice wraps up for the day. It’s earlier than usual, but that’s because the coach wants the team to be well-rested for the next day.

After the team finishes with putting away all the equipment, you huddle around the coach. Shinji gives a mini-speech on how well everyone has improved and how she’s looking forward to seeing everyone in action tomorrow.

When she’s done, Kamori follows the coach’s example and delivers her own speech with similar elements that the coach had. Before you know it, it’s your turn to speak.

You clear your throat. “Well, I’m not going to say much here today, since we really need to save the motivational pep talk for tomorrow. In the past week, you guys have done a lot to improve your defence and offence. It clearly shows how much effort you’ve all put into the team and I’m glad to be your vice-captain, even if I won’t be playing. I’ll be cheering for you guys in the stands, and I’ll make sure you hear it.”

Kamori smiles and nudges your shoulder. “Now, now, Y/N-chan. Don’t get all mopey on us again! We’re going to win the tournament and head to Nationals. Plus, we’ll crush Shiratorizawa for you!”

Murmurs of agreement echos through the large gymnasium. There’s an unspoken rivalry that Kitagawa Daiichi has against Shiratorizawa Junior High when it comes to volleyball. It all started when Tooru was still on the boys’ team, vowing to defeat both Ushijima Wakatoshi and Shiratorizawa. Somehow, the rivalry carried over to the girls’ team as well, finding themselves being crushed by Shiratorizawa’s girls each year.

The feeling of defeat is horrible. You’ve experienced it for two years in a row, but it also sparks determination in you. You want to beat Shiratorizawa Junior High.

Funny enough, while Kitagawa Daiichi and Shiratorizawa Junior High have a rivalry, there’s also one between the Oikawa’s and two certain Shiratorizawa players. Your team’s aware of the matter, thanks to your constant complaints about it. While Tooru has to deal with Ushijima, you have to deal with the ace of the girls’ team, Katsumi Sakai.

Unfortunately, like you, she’s in her third year of junior high. Each year that your teams have gone against each other, her team always manages to win. You can never forget the sneer she wears when she glances over at your defeated form after spiking the winning point. Oh, how you want to see that sneer wiped clean off her face.

Kamori places her hand in the middle of the huddle. Everyone follows suit. “On three.”

“One, two,”

“Kitagawa Daiichi!” The team chants in unison. Everyone leaves the huddle then, wishing one another good luck and to rest well before the athletic meet tomorrow. Kamori and you walk towards your volleyball bags and pick them up, grabbing your school bags afterwards.

“Kamori-chan,” you say to her. She adjusts the straps of her volleyball bag on her shoulder and replies with a hum to let you know she’s listening.

“The team will be depending on you tomorrow, so don’t mess up like you normally do!” You say with a happy tone despite your not-so-happy comment.

Kamori gasps in mock hurt and slaps your shoulder. “And I’m the mean one!” She wails.

“I won’t be there to slap you back into your senses when you’re worried about the score, so do your best,” you give Kamori a peace sign and wink. She huffs.

“You’re exactly like your brother, Y/N-chan.”

“Hey! Don’t compare me to that poor excuse of trash! Kamori-chan, you love me and you know it!”

“See what I mean?” Kamori lifts an eyebrow, her brown eyes gazing into yours.

“Alright, alright,” you wave your hand around you nonchalantly. “All jokes aside, I do hope you do well tomorrow. Get some good rest or you’ll be looking like you crawled out of Hell tomorrow!”

“You said all jokes aside!” Kamori cries out. The two of you have walked to the front entrance of the school by the time Kamori finishes her exclamation. You normally walk home with her as she lives a couple of streets away, but your first physiotherapy appointment is today. Your mom said she’ll be coming along with you and would pick you up from practice.

“Oh? I wasn’t joking— _ow_!” You cry out, rubbing the spot on your head Kamori just hit. You swear there’s a tick mark visible on her forehead.

“Shittykawa!” She curses at you.

You flinch at the familiar word. It’s normally reserved for just your brother by Hajime, so hearing it from Kamori strikes you as odd. “Kamori-chan, have you been hanging around Hajime recently?”

“N-no! Goodnight!” Kamori flushes and turns on her heel to leave. She steps three steps before she cranes her neck over her shoulder to look at you. “And you get some rest too! I might look like I crawled out from Hell, but you look like the Devil himself!”

You scoff, clutching your heart through the fabric of your shirt. “So _rude_!”

A honk interrupts any further thoughts. You turn your head towards the sound, seeing your mom in her car. You walk over to where she’s parked, throwing your volleyball bag accompanied by your school bag in the backseat and sit in the passenger seat.

“How was practice?” Your mom asks when you close the door. Your right hand reaches for the seatbelt during her question.

“It’s good. I hope we do well tomorrow,” you clip the metal part of your seatbelt into the buckle. It clicks to let you know it’s secure. After hearing the noise, your mom shifts the car gear into drive and begins the commute to the physiotherapy clinic.

“I’m sure you will. They’ve got you supporting them, after all.” Your mom coos.

“Moooom,” you whine. “That’s so cheesy.”

Your mom laughs, ending the short conversation. Both of you sit in a comfortable silence as she continues to drive towards the physiotherapy clinic. Fifteen minutes later, you arrive in front of a large building with multiple floors.

You believe that the clinic can’t be the entire building, and you’re correct. After entering the structure, there’s a plaque that reads the different floors and companies occupying them. You find out the physio clinic is on the third floor. You and your mom happily ride the elevator to said floor. When you exit, there’s a door directly across from the elevator that reads the name of the clinic your mom mentioned days before.

Pulling the door open, you both greet the receptionist inside with a small bow. You tell her your appointment time and she verifies it on the computer, before nodding and handing you a clipboard with multiple pieces of paper on it.

“We just need some personal information, as well as some information about your knee,” the receptionist explains. “When you’re done, just hand in the clipboard and we’ll be ready for you, Oikawa-san.”

You nod and head towards the seating area, where your mom is already. The forms aren’t too difficult to fill out; you finish in no time. You follow the receptionist’s instructions on what to do when you’re done and hand in the clipboard. She accepts it and tells you to wait while she checks if the physiotherapist is ready.

She comes back two minutes later. You notice that she doesn’t have the clipboard with her anymore. She gestures you to follow her, leading you into a small room with a medical bed, a chair, and some equipment placed on a cart.

“Hello,” you bow politely at the physiotherapist who’s already inside before thanking the receptionist. Your mom comes into the room seconds later and bows as well. She sits on the chair while you sit on the bed.

“Hello, Oikawa-san. How’re you today?” The physiotherapist says. He’s standing across from you.

“I’m good, thanks,” you reply. He smiles and asks the same question to your mom.

From there, the physiotherapist reads what you’ve written on the clipboard given to him by the receptionist. He recites it to you and you nod at him when he looks at you for confirmation. When he finishes, he asks you to stand up for a physical exam.

The physical exam is a bit strange, with the physiotherapist asking you to bend down to the ground and come back up multiple times. He then asks you to stand with your weight distributed evenly between your feet as he observes your knee. Honestly, you don’t think you’ve ever seen someone stare _that_ intensely at your knee before.

After he’s done with the physical exam, the physiotherapist confirms the diagnosis the kind hospital doctor had given you. He then proposes his plan to heal you during the six weeks you’ll be coming to the clinic.

“I believe two days a week for six weeks will do,” he says. “There’ll be some daily strengthening exercises and stretches for you to do when you’re at home. If you do them, your recovery will be quicker and you’ll most likely be back and playing volleyball sooner than later.”

“Will those two days every week be the same days?” Your mom chimes in suddenly.

“It’s up to your guys’ schedules. It doesn’t have to be the same days. As long as Oikawa-san comes to the clinic twice a week, it’ll be fine,” he responds.

“Alright, thank you.” Replies your mom.

The physiotherapist turns back to you. “We’ll start the physio anytime this week you’d like, Oikawa-san. You can make the appointment with the receptionist outside.”

Taking it as a cue to leave, you and your mom both stand up and head to the door. The two of you bow once again to the physiotherapist and thank him for his work. You exit the room and find your way back to the seating area. The receptionist notices your return and helps book your next appointment. You bow to her as well when you’re about to leave.

You and your mom make your way back into her car and slowly begin the drive home. Glancing at the time on the dashboard, you realize that there’ll most likely be traffic on the way home.

“I won’t be able to accompany you on your appointments anymore,” your mom sighs after a moment of tranquil silence. “My senpai wants me to work some more since he claims I’m close to getting a promotion. He says all I have left to do before getting it is some more experience.”

“That’s okay,” you hum. “As long as you take care of yourself and don’t work too hard.”

Your mom laughs. “I should be telling you that. Anyway, the clinic is pretty far from our house. I know you’re probably going to bus down here, maybe take Tooru with you when you do? You should probably go on Mondays for one of the two days because he doesn’t have practice then. I don’t want you going alone too often around this time of day.”

“I highly doubt he’d come, but sure,” you agree. Tooru would most likely whine about having to come or about his love life the entire time you’ll be making your way to the clinic. You cringe at the thought of being forced to listen to his gripes for that long.

“He will, trust me. He cares about you too much to not,” your mom chuckles. “It’s always ‘Y/N this’ and ‘Y/N that’ with him.”

“Oh?” You raise your eyebrows. You definitely did not expect that.

Your mom briefly glances at you with the signature Oikawa smile on her face. “He’s been like that ever since the two of you were kids. He just hides it from you—well somewhat—cause he’s worried that you won’t like him because he’s worrying over you too much.”

You’re shocked. You know that Tooru cares about you, and you care about him too, without a doubt. But once again, you totally were not expecting what your mom said.

“Anyway,” your mom changes the topic. You look out the window and notice that you’re three streets away from home. “Tooru said he attempted to make dinner today. Let’s just hope he hasn’t burned down the kitchen yet. You should eat, then rest. You’re going to have to get up early tomorrow for the tournament, right?”

“Yeah. We’re all meeting at the City Gymnasium earlier than needed, just in case someone’s late, since we aren’t taking a bus in the morning.” You answer, laughing at your mom’s comment about Tooru burning the kitchen down.

“You’ll be taking the bus then, I assume?” Your mom asks.

“Yup. Means I’ll be getting up even earlier,” you reply. “Kamori-chan says I look like the Devil himself when I don’t get enough rest, so I’ll surely be getting lots tonight!”

Your mom laughs and turns onto your street. A few seconds later, she pulls into the driveway. You both exit the car and enter your house. Your eyes scan as much of the first floor of your house as you could, in search of your brother. You conclude that he’s not on the first floor, most likely in his room upstairs.

You then follow your mom to the kitchen. She opens the lid of the pot resting on the stove. A pleasant smell enters your nose and fills the kitchen.

 _Not bad_ , you purse your lips as you look over your mom’s shoulder to stare down at the food. _I was expecting something burnt, but this is the opposite! Who would’ve known that Tooru’s actually capable of cooking something decent!_

You eat dinner across from your mom with at the table little conversation. The both of you are too busy eating to talk, although you both unanimously agree that the food tastes pretty good. Afterwards, you head to your room, shower, then get ready for bed. It’s pretty early in the night, but you decide that it’s better to get more rest than less, anyway.

There’s a nervous churning in your stomach that doesn’t disappear even as you fall asleep, but it makes sense as to why. After all, the Junior High Athletics Meet is tomorrow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hi hi!! here's another chapter for the week :^))
> 
> i added a little cover for this fic, it's visible on chapter 1 if you wanna see it! it took me forever because i kept messing up with the sizing and filters oops
> 
> also for the plot's sake, bird-chan's going to be right handed, so i apologize to you left handed readers! but anyway, bird-chan's going to the junior high athletics meet... i wonder what'll happen there? :o
> 
> thank you for reading and i'll see you all next week!


	4. junior high athletics meet

The next morning is a quiet and peaceful one. You wake up to the sounds of birds chirping cheerfully outside, with the sun shining brilliantly through your curtains. It illuminates your room with a light orange and yellow glow.

Then there’s you, curled up in a ball under your covers. You roll over onto your side and extend your hand to your nightstand without looking at it. After slapping your hand multiple times against the nightstand, your hand finally makes contact with your phone. You grab it and bring it to your field of vision.

The movement of your phone causes it to turn on automatically. The time flashes onto the screen along with some notifications you’ve gotten overnight. As you look at the time on your phone, you think that it’s way too early in the morning, and it’s also way before the time you actually need to be up.

It’s then you realize you’re up before your alarm again, but you’re sure it’s because you’re too nervous about today’s tournament. You’ve always had this strange habit where you wake up before a major event because you fear that you’ll sleep in and be late. Or worse, you miss the event entirely.

Since you probably aren’t going to be able to fall back asleep, you figure you could make use of the extra time you have. You extend your arm to your nightstand again and search for your earbuds, which are much easier to find without looking. Once you place them into your ears, they connect automatically to your phone. You browse through your playlist and press the shuffle button.

You then slide off your bed, as the first song queued up begins to play. Your feet touch the ground with a quiet bounce. After walking to the middle of your room, where there’s the most space, you begin to stretch. You follow the usual stretching routine you do at practice, hoping that it’ll allow you to be more flexible and have a further range of motion on the court.

Just as you complete the last stretch of the routine, your usual alarm goes off. You turn it off quickly. Your alarm’s always near maximum volume because you have the tendency to sleep through it. But with the volume of your alarm, it sometimes wakes Tooru up as well, to which he never lets you off for disturbing his beauty sleep. Hajime says to keep it up and to bug him as much as possible.

You walk over to your closet and open the doors. You pull out your school’s volleyball club t-shirt along with some black shorts, replacing your current clothes with those ones. Your jersey stays hanging up in your closet.

The next place you head to is your desk. You grab your volleyball jacket that’s been thrown over your chair from yesterday and put it on. You hold onto the collars of your jacket and inhale deeply. The familiar material of it is comforting to you, somewhat relieving you from the nervousness you’re feeling.

You head into the washroom afterwards and freshen yourself up. As you stare at your reflection in the mirror, you’re suddenly reminded of Kamori’s comment about you looking like the Devil from the day before. You smirk as you try to make yourself look as presentable as possible just to annoy her.

When you finish, you go back into your room, grab the essentials, and exit into the hallway. Your volleyball bag stays in your closet today. There’s no need for it if you’re not going to be playing.

You walk down the hallway with light footfalls to not wake your sleeping brother. As you pass his room, you notice that his door’s wide open. You notice his chocolate brown locks peeking out from under his covers. Looking at your brother’s sleeping form, you’re reminded of what your mom said about him yesterday.

_“He will, trust me. He cares about you too much to not,” your mom chuckles. “It’s always ‘Y/N this’ and ‘Y/N that’ with him.”_

With a slight tilt of your head to the right side of the hallway, where your mom’s room is, you assume that your mom’s left for work already. You look back at Tooru’s room once more before descending the stairs.

 _Perhaps I should make him something to eat before I leave_ , you hum. You and Tooru are usually the ones (more so you. You don’t trust Tooru in the kitchen) that prepare the food in the house. It used to be your mom, but with her many hours of work from the crack of dawn to the late of the night, she’s usually too exhausted by the time she gets home from work.

It’s alright, though. You and Tooru were the ones to insist that you both manage the food so that your mom could have some more time to rest. You resist a chuckle when you recall your mom’s expression when you said that to her. She almost burst into tears right there and then, claiming how much her children have grown.

You shuffle into the kitchen and prepare your religious slice of bread and cream cheese—something you always eat before morning practice or tournaments. An extra sandwich is made for your brother. You think that he’ll be able to make his lunch on his own, or maybe he’ll nab Hajime’s.

Not wanting to be late, you opt to eat your sandwich along the way to the train station. It’s better than to take time at home to eat it. You fear you might get distracted by something and lose track of time, considering it’s happened before. But don’t worry, you still made it on time that day!

Exiting your house, you close and lock the front door. You place your keys into your jacket afterwards, zipping up the pocket so that your keys won’t fall out. You trek down the little path from your house that leads onto the sidewalks and you begin your walk towards the subway station.

It’s roughly about a fifteen-minute walk from your house to the subway station. Although it seems like a long amount of time spent walking, it’s a worthwhile one. The train you’re planning to take at the station has a stop that’s two minutes away from the City Gymnasium on foot.

You choose to listen to some music again during your walk, picking up from where you left off in your playlist when stretching. The music coursing through your ears pumps you up and gets you excited for the matches today.

“Alright!” You find yourself pumping your fist into the air, cheering. You realize what you’ve done seconds later and you look around to see if anyone else in on the street. Luckily, it’s too early in the morning for anyone to be around. You breathe out a sigh of relief, not wanting to imagine how embarrassed you’d be if someone had witnessed that.

With the fast strides you’re taking to the station, you arrive there earlier than expected. You wait at the station for about eight minutes before the subway arrives. As you enter onto the subway, you notice that there are only four other passengers inside.

 _This stop is one of the first the subway takes, so it explains the small number of people. Or maybe it’s just early in the morning_. Probably the latter reason, you deliberate with yourself.

The next twenty minutes to the station where the City Gymnasium is near passes by in a blur. You soon find yourself pulling the string that’s strung along the subway’s sides, notifying the driver that you’ll be needing to get off next stop.

As you exit the subway, you walk briskly out of the station. When you walk up the steps to above ground, you notice the City Gymnasium is pretty much across the street. You walk towards an intersection and press the pedestrian button.

When the cars passing by come to a stop and the red hand turns into the green walking man, you cross the street. A couple of meters ahead of you is the City Gymnasium. It’s as large as you remember.

You continue your walk and head on inside, eager to find your team. As you’ve all discussed on a location to meet the day before, it doesn’t take you long to find them. You approach your team and notice that a little over half of your team is present. You exchange greetings with them when they notice your arrival.

“Kamori-chan!” You call out for your friend, a smirk developing across your face as you plan to pester her. “Do I look like the Devil today? I slept early just for you!”

Kamori turns around to face you and shakes her head in disappointment. Under her breath, she mutters, “you might not look like one, but you definitely are one at heart.”

“What was that? I missed it,” you reply innocently. You’re well aware of what your friend said, though.

“Nothing!” She exclaims loudly.

You laugh. Suddenly, your voice drops an octave as the atmosphere turns dark for a second. “But it’s always fun to be a Devil in disguise. The element of surprise is always good, on _and_ off the volleyball court.”

Kamori shudders, “that’s exactly what Oikawa-senpai would say. Like brother, like sister!”

“Yutaka’s right. Oikawa would regularly say a lighthearted comment but always follow it up with a serious remark afterwards.” The coach comments, overhearing you and Kamori’s conversation.

You’re confused for a second on how she knows that, but then you recall she that was the assistant coach on the boys’ team before switching over to become the coach of the girls’ team.

“There’s an out-of-this-world connection between the two,” Kamori shudders again, her arms coming and crossing to rub her upper arms. You suppress a laugh when you recall Tooru’s secret obsession with aliens and outer space.

“Anyway, the whole team’s here now,” the coach points out. You conduct a headcount in your mind to confirm.

“We’re one of the first teams to play, so official warm-ups should be starting soon. We should head into the gym now.” The coach says to the team before turning to you. “Oikawa, before the game begins, I’d like for you to come down and say a couple of words to the team.”

“Of course! You don’t even need to ask, Coach. Anyway, I don’t wanna cut into your warm-up time, so I’d better head up into the stands. Plus, it gives me some time to analyze the other team,” you flash them a peace sign with a smirk on your face.

“So make sure you warm up well, girls! Don’t worry about watching the other team because that’s what I’ll be doing. I don’t want any injuries because you’re not warmed up well enough, or else you’ll never hear the end of it from me!” You say to your team.

They agree in unison before heading into the gym together. They all shoot you smiles as they pass by to enter the gym. As Kamori, the last team member to enter the gym passes by, the door of the gym closes with a loud slam. The slight wind from the door brushes against your face.

You frown as you realize that you’re left alone in the dust of your teammates. You grip the ends of your team jacket tightly in your hands, hating the feeling of being left behind. Willing yourself not to think like so, you inhale and exhale sharply with a sigh. Your grip on your jacket lessens.

 _I should go_. You turn on your heel and walk away from the doors of the gym to find your way into the stands. The path to the stands is fixed in your mind, with two consecutive years of being this facility helping you to recall it easily.

As you enter the stands, you locate a good spot for you to sit and watch. You choose to sit on the side of the stands that faces the opposing team. With sharp and observing eyes, you watch and analyze the players warming up. Your eyes occasionally fleet over to your team to check if each girl is warming up properly.

“Hey, is there someone missing from Kitagawa Daiichi’s team?”

You gulp nervously. You slouch in your chair, hiding your Kitagawa Daiichi jacket from the people talking a couple of rows behind you.

“Oh, you noticed it too? I thought I was just imagining it. Their #2 isn’t there, right?”

 _That’s because I’m right here_. You reply in your head.

“The vice-captain?”

“And also their ace.”

You try and focus on the opposing team, but you keep finding yourself overhearing the conversation happening from behind you.

“Ah, I remember her now! Isn’t she Oikawa Tooru’s sister?”

“Yeah! The one who won the Best Setter award two years ago.”

“If she really is his sister, wouldn’t she be on Kitagawa Daiichi’s team right now? I remember I watched her play in last year’s tournament and she was really good! She blasted through most blockers with her spikes! I thought she was going to win the Best Wing Spiker award this year.”

 _Yeah, I thought so too_. You shift uncomfortably in your seat. _But we don’t always get what we want, huh?_

“Wow, she must be really good! I wonder what happened to her, then.”

 _Focus on the team, focus on the team, focus on the team_. You redirect your gaze from your feet back onto the court. You will yourself to not listen to anything else the people talking have to say.

The court is filled with the familiar colours of dark blue and white. It merges with the gray and white colours of the opposing team. You long to be down there as well, mingling in with the colours of your team. Your stare drifts from the players on the court to your left knee. _If only…_

You don’t know how long you’ve been lost in your thoughts, as the next time you look onto the court where your team is warming up, the coach is waving you down.

“It’s starting alright?” You whisper to yourself while making your way down into the gym. You’re careful to hide your face and jacket as you pass by the two people who were talking about you earlier.

You take longer strides with your legs to arrive faster. You want to be able to deliver a vice-captain’s speech well without holding up the girls for much longer.  

The door of the gym swings open from your push. The stands look different from this angle, almost feeling far away. You pass by multiple courts to arrive at the one Kitagawa Daiichi currently occupies. With your arrival, the team stops warming up and comes together.

“Our first opponent is Shigeki Junior High,” the coach informs you. Your brows furrow in confusion. You’ve never heard of the school before, which can mean two things. The first is that they’re a new team and you don’t have to worry about losing, and the second is that they’re new and secretly a powerhouse.

“Huddle!” Kamori calls before you can completely analyze the team. You follow Kamori’s instructions, falling beside her and Mikado. You bend over, placing your arms on the girls’ waists. The team forms a circle.

“Alright, girls! It’s our first game here and it definitely won’t be our last! In this match, we’ll work our hardest as a team by supporting one another. We have all worked super hard this season and it’s time we show the teams here what Kitagawa Daiichi is made of!” Kamori grins. A similar smile mirrors onto your face despite your longing to play.

“Kitagawa Daiichi is a powerful school when it comes to volleyball. Let’s live up to the name and show ‘em what we’ve got! I’ll be cheering you girls on, so do your best! I have faith in you guys.” You add in your own words of encouragement.

The team separates with a team chant. They line up to begin the game while you head out of the gym. As you’re outside, you hear the whistle of the umpire. The game must have started by now. You speed up, not wanting to miss the first couple points of the game.

As you’re speed-walking down the hallway, you can’t help but notice a boy with orange hair sporting a green volleyball uniform. The back of his uniform reads the number one followed by a line under the digit. You conclude that he’s the captain. The captain’s team is circling around him, although they don’t look as confident as he does.

All around you, people are murmuring about the team. “That’s Yukigaoka. Poor scrubs have to go up against Kitagawa Daiichi right off the bat.”

You pause in your steps, turning to look at the team again. You take a better look at their jerseys this time, now noticing the kanji reading out the name of the school. _Yukigaoka? I thought they didn’t have a boys’ team. Their girls’ team isn’t super hard to beat, so I wonder how the boys will do._

“Speak of the devil… here they come,” the same voice speaks again. “It’s Kitagawa Daiichi!”

For a second, you think the person’s talking about you. But when you turn to face the boy, he isn’t looking at you. Your eyes follow the boy’s gaze that goes to the team that is currently entering the hallway. They’re all wearing the familiar uniforms of dark blue and white.

You recognize some familiar faces as soon as you see them. The boys’ team is walking close together, with an easily noticeable ravenette at the front.

“It’s Kageyama Tobio,” The boy next to the first one who was talking says, “The King of the Court!”

At the mention of the nickname, Kageyama whips around and glares at the two boys. You frown. Kageyama’s never been fond of the nickname he’s garnered for himself.

Frankly, you aren’t either, but it’s not really your issue. At least, not anymore. You’ve drifted from each other at the beginning of your third year when he began his ‘King of the Court’ reign.

The Kitagawa Daiichi’s boys’ team walks past Yukigaoka. You can’t help but follow. But why? You’re not particularly close with Kageyama anymore, and you don’t know anyone well on the team either, besides Kindaichi and Kunimi, your classmates. Perhaps you could go and wish them good luck?

Regardless of your good intentions of finding the boys’ team, you lose sight of the team. You whine in your head as the two colours of your school disappear amongst the sea of different colours.

It takes you a while, but after checking around several locations near where you last saw them, you hear Kageyama’s voice. You follow it and end up in front of the boys’ washroom. You chuckle quietly, is he always this loud?

Kageyama soon storms out of the washroom. You take the opportunity to go after him. “Tobio-chan!”

You pause immediately in your steps, realizing your mistake. Would Kageyama still mind if you called him by his first name?

He turns around at the familiar nickname and voice. His eyes widen slightly at the sight of the person in front of him. “Y/N-san?”

You almost let out a sigh of relief. He said your first name too. “I…” The words fall short on your tongue. “Good luck.”

Although his eyes are widened, his face reminds stoic. “Thank you.”

“No problem,” you reply. An awkward silence falls between the two of you. You wrack your brain to think of a new topic. Since when was talking to Kageyama this difficult? It wasn’t like this before—your conversations would flow naturally, despite Kageyama’s inability to express himself.

“I’ll be heading off now. Official warm-ups are about to start. Good luck on your games,” Kageyama says without hesitance. He turns and continues to head down towards the gym.

You’re dumbfounded. You want to say more before he takes his leave, tell him that you actually won’t be playing. There’s so much you want to catch Kageyama up with, but will he let you? After all, you’re the one who drifted away from him on your own accord.

Shrugging off the thoughts, you turn as well in the opposite direction Kageyama walked off in. Thinking of your next destination, you find yourself suppressing a groan. You let him distract you. You’re supposed to be in the stands cheering on your own team right now.

“Oh? Oikawa-san!” Your gaze that currently rests on the ground lifts when you hear someone call your name.

“Ah, Kindaichi-kun, Kunimi-kun!” You reply, looking at your two classmates. “Are you guys heading to the gym?”

Kindaichi nods. “Yeah. Our game’s starting soon. Kunimi and I just went to refill our water bottles before the game.”

“Oh, I shouldn’t hold you guys up too long then. Good luck on your game!” You say cheerfully, flashing the duo a thumbs up.

“Hm, yeah. Wouldn’t want to make the King of the Court angry because we haven’t come back in two minutes.” Kindaichi grumbles.

“Kindaichi, you know Tobio-chan doesn’t like that name.” You frown. You recall how hurt Kageyama seems each time the nickname is mentioned.

“Anyway,” Kumini cuts in before Kindaichi has a chance to reply. He pushes Kindaichi’s shoulder to move him forwards. “We should probably head to the gym. Good luck on your game as well, Oikawa-san.”

“I’m not playing,” you blurt out swiftly before you can stop yourself.

“What?” Kunimi stops pushing Kindaichi’s shoulder and pauses.

“My knee,” you say. The two boys look at you oddly. You’re still trying to find the right words after blurting your injury out loud suddenly. “I practiced too much and hurt it. I’m off for six weeks.”

“Damn,” Kindaichi grimaces. “That must suck.”

“Don’t be insensitive!” Kunimi smacks Kindaichi’s upper arms.

You laugh. “It’s fine. Well not really, but you guys get the point.”

You then place your hands lightly on each boys shoulders. You find it to be a little difficult since they’re both a lot taller than you (you’re certain your growth spurt will come), and shove them forwards gently. “Go to your game now, guys! You don’t want to be late during your first match.”

“Alright, alright,” Kindaichi says. “Will you be watching our game?”

“I’m not too sure if I can. I’ve probably already missed a lot of the girls’ game, but if they finish quickly and your match is still going on, I’ll come.” You decide.

Kindaichi grins. “Good. We’ll see you in the stands then, hopefully! Bye, Oikawa-san!”

Kindaichi then departs with Kumini beside him, who waves you goodbye. As they continue their walk back to the gym, you’re left alone again. You begin walking to the stands. This time, you’re not distracted on your way there.

You arrive in about five minutes, getting a good seat to see your team’s side of the court. You wonder how long you’ve been gone. When you glance at the scoreboard, your question is answered for you.

Shigeki | 2 | Kitagawa Daiichi

[ 13 - 20 ]

 _I’ve been gone for that long?!_ You shout in your head. _It’s already the second set!_

Judging by how far Kitagawa Daiichi is ahead of Shigeki, you assume that your team’s won the first set as well. You grin happily when you watch Kamori do a service ace with her newly perfected overhand serve.

For the next three serves, Kamori aims at a weak receiver in the back right- hand side of the court. They are all service aces, bringing your team to set point.

This time when Kamori serves, the receiver manages to bump the ball up. It doesn’t go in the direction she wants it to, though. The volleyball flies backwards as another teammate from Shigeki chases after it. With a last-second dive, the ball is saved and flies back towards the net. A wing spiker prepares to hit the ball as it comes flying down, only to be blocked by two of your teammates.

The ball slams back onto the ground, on Shigeki’s side of the court. It’s in. The referee blows his whistle, indicating the end of the match. You’re smiling with glee, wasting no time with running down the stands to meet your team outside the gym.

“Congratulations!” You say to your team when they come out from the gymnasium. “You all did so well!”

“Thanks!” They reply in unison.

“I’m just glad they weren’t a hard team,” one of the girl's huff. “I got worried when I heard their name—I’ve never heard of them before, so I didn’t know if they’re good or not. I guess we got our answer.”

“Yeah, I was thinking the same thing. But now that I think about it, it’s not good to underestimate your opponents. After all, you’ll get too cocky and perhaps it’ll make you lose in the end,” you reply.

“Makes sense,” the girl replies, walking next to you as the team makes their way out of the hallway. Right now, the team’s trying to find a spot where they can sit and relax for their next match.

“Do you know who you’re playing against next?” It’s a harmless question, but the girl next to you purses her lips and slows her pace. You frown.

“Well, the match is still going on right now,” she starts. “But I’m certain this team will win and we’ll be going against them afterwards.”

“What team is it?”

“Shiratorizawa.”

You gulp nervously. You didn’t expect to encounter that school this early in the tournament. You want to go against them during the finals, not during the second round. It’s too soon. You want to watch your team play more. _No! Don’t think like that, don’t doubt your team._

“-kawa? Oikawa?”

“Huh? Oh, sorry!”

Your team finally finds a good location to sit down at. A bunch of thuds echo throughout the hall as the girls throw their volleyball bags onto the ground. Some sit down and eat, while some choose to stand and stretch.

Suddenly, you remember the small promise you’ve made to Kindaichi and Kunimi. “Ah, I said I was going to watch the boys’ match!”

Kamori suddenly appears by your side, “hmm, Y/N-chan? You’re going to watch the boys’ game but you only watched the last couple points of our match?”

You freeze. “What’re you talking about?”

“Don’t think I didn’t notice you not being there in the stands, vice-captain. What were you doing?” Kamori gasps. “Don’t tell me you were going after some cute boys? Do tell!”

“Oh my god, no, Kamori-chan!” You shout. “I just got sidetracked and ran into Kindaichi and Kunimi. They asked me to go watch their game if I had the time after ours was done!”

“Sidetracked? By a boy?” Kamori nudges your shoulders, wiggling her eyebrows. You hide your face in embarrassment. The urge to suddenly not want to be seen with her anymore washes over you like a wave. You’re thankful that the rest of your team is off to the side and out of earshot.

“No comment,” you walk away from Kamori before she can say anything else. You really don’t feel like explaining how you saw Kitagawa Daiichi’s boys’ team and went after Kageyama without thinking. You’d never hear the end of that.

You find yourself in front of your coach. “Oikawa? How can I help you?”

“I was just wondering if I could go and watch the boys’ game. I have some friends on the team and they wanted me to go and watch when the girls’ game was finished,” you ask.

Your coach nods. “As long as you’re back in time for the next match.”

“Alright, thanks!” You reply. You break off from your team, walking by yourself to the stands of the gym where the boys’ match is taking place. For a second, you wonder why you didn’t ask Kamori to come with you. It’d be more entertaining watching the match with her commentary.

You shake off the thoughts of going back to get her. _She should be resting and preparing herself for the next match. It’s against Shiratorizawa after all._

Swiftly with the reminder of said school, you find yourself thinking about your team’s next match. Each year you’ve been defeated by them. It’s always a close loss when you play against them.

Three sets, a deuce, followed by a loss. It’s a vicious cycle that tends to repeat itself.

You wonder how your team will fair without you, without their ace. You remind yourself that they’ve improved their defensive power. It is definitely a positive thing for your team, especially since they’re going against Shiratorizawa’s ace. You grimace with the thought of her. She’s so much better than you, so much more skilled. It irks you.

As you push the door to the stands open, the thoughts of Shiratorizawa are also pushed out of your mind. Most of the seats in the stands are empty, to your relief. You choose to sit near the rails closest to the court where your school’s playing.

There’s a few other people around, notably three high school students with black jackets. A quick glance to the trio beside you reveals a brunette boy, a gray-haired boy, and a buzz cut boy. The last one looks quite intimidating. You’re glad he’s the furthest away from you.

Your eyes then make their way to the scoreboard. Kitagawa Daiichi’s at twenty-two points, while Yukigaoka is at seven. You nearly wince at the gap between the points. You couldn’t imagine being that far behind an opponent.

Trailing your line of sight to the court, they make it right on time to see the boy with orange hair you saw earlier jump up for a spike. Despite his short stature, the boy jumps up high. His hands are well above the net, legs bent around half-way the width of the net.

“Woah,” you whistle out loud. “That’s one hell of a jump.”

_I can’t even jump that high—and I’m taller than him!_

Even with his impressive jump, his spike is blocked. _What a shame, the spike would’ve been pretty good if it would’ve made it across._

“Gah!” Your thoughts are interrupted. You look over to the owner of the voice. It’s the boy with a buzz cut. “Stuffed again!”

“Still, that number one is still flying all over the place! Even though he sucks at a lot of stuff.” The same boy speaks again. He grips the rail in frustration. “If only he was taller!”

“Yeah. But even at that height, number one would be more effective if Yukigaoka had a proper setter.” The brunette says. You gape at the new information.

“Yukigaoka doesn’t have a proper setter?” You notice that words keep slipping out of your mouth before you can stop them recently. You curse yourself in silence as the three boys look over to you.

“Nope. They’re a team of rookies,” the gray-haired boy smiles amiably at you. You can’t help but offer your own smile back. “Although, that number one is doing a good job at holding the team together. On the contrary, Kageyama’s surrounded by decent talent, but he’s not making the best use out of it. He has plenty of ability to do so, though. It’s almost as if…

“...he’s playing the game by himself.”

Your grin slips into a slight frown. You’re aware of Kageyama’s playing style and attitude. It’s what caused you two to drift apart in the first place, after all. Somehow, his King of the Court tendencies somehow managed to transfer over to outside the court as well, planting a ridge in your relationship.

You redirect your gaze from the teenager back onto the court. You watch as Kageyama sets a ball for Kindaichi, who’s barely able to get there in time. He manages to graze the ball with his fingertips and get the ball over the net. Kitagawa Daiichi earns another point.

Kageyama shouts at Kindaichi, to which he and Kunimi retort with something you can’t make out. The captain of the boys’ team nudges Kageyama and he silences himself.

“Say, isn’t that the Kitagawa Daiichi jacket you’re wearing?” The guy with the buzz cut asks you. You make eye contact with him and gulp unconsciously. His eyes are sharp and seem to be staring into your soul.

“Yeah,” you reply. “I’m on the girls’ team.”

“Don’t mind him,” the brunette waves an arm around as if to dismiss his friend’s actions. “He just acts like that because he thinks it’s cool.”

“Daichi-san!” The boy whines. “I was trying to be cool—after all, she’s a _cute_ girl!”

Your eyes widen in surprise. You’ve never had anyone call you cute right to your face with no shame before. That’s a bold move.

You hear the whistle being blown and watch the court again. Kitagawa Daiichi’s number ten serves the ball. Number three on Yukigaoka’s side receives it, although it rebounds in a backwards direction.

You think that Kitagawa Daiichi’s just gotten another point, but you’re proven wrong when the captain of Yukigaoka chases after the ball. He dives for the ball, missing it only by a couple of centimetres. He flips over a couple of times and crashes into the wall painfully.

“That’s gotta hurt,” you comment. “It’s impressive though. How he still hasn’t given up the game despite the circumstances, I mean.”

“It’s admirable. The level of determination he has is stunning,” the silver-haired boy replies.

“It’s Kitagawa Daiichi’s match point, though!” The boy the furthest from you exclaims. You look over at the scoreboard to confirm. Kitagawa’s at twenty-four points, while Yukigaoka’s still at seven.

Number ten on Kitagawa’s team serves again. The orange-haired boy receives the ball, but it goes to another teammate instead of the setter. The player extends his leg, sending the ball up. The receiver goes up after the ball as two boys from Kitagawa Daiichi jump up for a two-man block.

The spiker swings his arm, the ball making contact with Kindaichi’s hand before flying off towards your school’s side of the court. The ball goes too far for it to be chased down in time by Kunimi, earning Yukigaoka their eight point.

“That wasn’t bad. The save by the guy’s leg was really cool. It makes me think if he plays another sport,” you ponder out loud to the three boys beside you.

“Maybe. Or he just has some godly reflexes,” the brunette chuckles. You can’t help but laugh along with him.

After a rotation of Yukigaoka’s side of the court, the next person to serve is the one who saved the ball earlier with his leg. He does an overhand that falls in between the gap of the front and back rows of Kitagawa Daiichi. A member of the team dives forwards and saves the ball. Despite the save, it travels too far and sails over the heads of his teammates, back onto the side of Yukigaoka.

“Free ball!” You hear number three call out. He bumps it over successfully to the setter. The setter calls for the captain of the team. It looks like it’s going to be a successful set, but you jinx it. The set is botched as the setter grazes the ball with his fingertips. The ball flies backwards instead of forwards, where the captain stands.

“There’s no one to receive that ball,” you murmur. Once again, you’re proven wrong. In the blink of an eye, Yukigaoka’s number one somehow makes it from the left side of the court to the right. He’s already in the air and before you know it, the ball sails past Kageyama’s outstretched arm. It’s too fast for Kunimi to receive, earning Yukigaoka another point.

Or so you thought.

For the third time in the timespan of thirty seconds, you’re wrong again. You flinch as the captain falls onto the table nearby after spiking the ball. The referee declares the ball as out. Your school wins the match.

“Agh! That last one was so close!” The buzz cut boy shouts. You can only nod in agreement, still processing what the  _hell_ just happened.

“Yeah, but look. Check out the Kitagawa kids. They don’t look like a team that just crushed their opponents in back-to-back sets.” The brunette observes.

You glance down, seeing your school’s team leave the court without much interaction. There’s no cheering or words of encouragement coming from one another. It gives the impression that they’re the ones who have just lost instead.

The players line up and shake each other’s hand before exiting the court. You take it as your own cue to leave.

“I’ve got to go now, I promised my coach I’d be back for my team’s next game. It was nice talking to you guys,” you bow to the trio. They look taken aback.

“There’s no need to bow!” The gray-haired boy exclaims. The buzz cut boy is too shocked to say anything.

The brunette nods, “good luck with your game.”

“Thank you!” You say, not bothering to explain to them that you’re not actually playing. It’d take too much time and you really didn’t want to go through that process another time. With a cheerful wave, you leave the stands.

Your current goal is to make it back to the spot where your team’s temporarily resting at. On your way there, you’re once again distracted. When you come across the lobby, you spot the team you’ve just watched clad in all green. Yukigaoka.

Looking at the clock on the wall, you chew on the inside of your cheek before coming to a decision. _If I go it’s gotta be quick. The game’s starting soon._

With one more glance at the hallway ahead of you leading to your team and another to the clock, you switch directions of where you’re walking. The boys’ team of Yukigaoka have already gone outside of the building, but you head after them anyway.

You want to go congratulate them on their effort.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello again, happy wednesday!
> 
> bird-chan finally interacts with the some of the future karasuno team members woohoo!! she also gets to interact with kindaichi and kunimi, bet you weren't expecting that hehe
> 
> thank you for over 100 hits!! i'm still shook about this tbh i was not expecting it at all
> 
> thanks for reading again; to next week!


	5. bittersweet

When you take your first step outside of the building, you’re greeted with a voice shouting at someone else. Curiously, you look towards the source of the sound and find your eyes trailing to the bottom of the staircase. You notice a peek of orange hair from there; it’s probably the Yukigaoka captain. By the sheer volume of his voice, you’re able to hear what’s saying clearly.

“If you really are the king who rules the court,” the captain begins. You infer that he’s talking to Kageyama based on the title of ‘King’. His voice cracks when he continues with his next words, “then someday I’m gonna beat you! And I’m gonna the one who stays on the court the longest!”

The captain’s word strike a chord in you, causing you to frown with understanding. You sympathize with him, a little too familiar with the way he feels.

You also want to be the last one of the court. 

It’s your last year in junior high, and during this time, there’s nothing more you’d like to do than to win the tournament in your final year here. You want to crush Shiratorizawa in the finals and then head to the Junior High Nationals. You’re aching for the feeling of accomplishment when the first place medal is strung onto your neck. You want to be able to truly smile with one that beams with hard-work, victory, and pride, instead of the false one you wear to cheer up your teammates after losing.

“Only the winners get to stay on the court. Only the best,” Kageyama replies. The purple and white colours of Shiratorizawa’s uniform flash through your mind momentarily. You ball your hands into fists, already knowing Kageyama’s next words. “If you want to win, get stronger! Get better!” 

Kageyama then whips around and heads off in the original direction he was headed towards, seemingly done with the conversation. Your eyes linger on the back of his retreating figure as you’re rooted to your spot at the entrance of the gymnasium. As Kageyama disappears around a corner, you think that it’s probably the time to make your appearance. 

You’re about to awkwardly clear your throat and introduce yourself after getting the attention of the Yukigaoka members, but you’re saved from that when one of the team members notices you. As he meets your gaze over his shoulder, you note that the boy seems to be younger than you. When his eyes catch the colours of Kitagawa Daiichi and then gaze over the logo of your school, he turns around fully. 

Once he turns over, he attracts the attention of another teammate, who turns around too. A domino effect soon follows, which ends with the entire team facing you in the end with an array of expressions on their faces. You gulp of out nervousness.

You think that somehow awkwardly clearing your throat after the confrontation with Kageyama could have been a better predicament than this one. A boy with black spiky hair steps forwards first. He kind of reminds you of Kindaichi, especially with his hairstyle. You chuckle inwardly.

“Kitagawa Daiichi?” The boy asks, glancing at the colours and school logo on your jacket. You nod. “Are you here to brag about your win? If so, I really hope putting down another team makes you feel better about your horrible, twisted self.”

“W-what?! No!” You’re taken aback at the aggressively insulting statement. You don’t have any ill intentions at all, you simply want to congratulate them on doing their best! “I just wanted to say ‘good job’ in your game against Kitagawa Daiichi!” 

“Good job on losing?” The boy questions again. You huff in exasperation as your brows knit together. Why is he so pessimistic? He should be thanking you instead of whatever he’s doing now.

“Well I’m trying to be nice here, so if you’d let me finish,” you frown and stare at the boy, daring him to interrupt you. To your pleasure, he doesn’t. “I didn’t see much of the full game, but the last couple points I saw were amazing. It seems like you’re a newly formed team, so I think you’ve done really well despite the circumstances.”

You turn to the sandy-coloured hair boy and smile slightly at him. “That save with your leg was amazing.” 

You then turn towards the captain, who’s definitely left one hell of a first impression on you. “That last spike you did; where you ran across the court in such a short amount of time was so cool! I feel like if I were to blink during that moment, I would’ve missed it. Oh, and your jump! You can jump so high, I was so surprised when I saw it! Your determination and perseverance is also something I really respect.”

The orange-haired boy turns pink at your multiple compliments. “Thank you!” 

“The rest of the team did really well too,” you add as a last minute thought. You might as well lift of the spirits of the entire Yukigaoka boys’ team after being completely annihilated by your school.

After the boys respond with their own words of gratitude, the conversation slides into an awkward silence. Since you’ve already said everything you wanted to, you’re unsure of what to say next. You’re about to bid goodbye to the team and wallow in your own embarrassment, but before you can do so, the captain says something.

“The tournament…” The captain trails off. “Was my first ever official game in junior high. And now, it’s my last too.”

“I know it doesn’t really seem like it, but that’s totally okay! You can remember this game as the first one in which you’ve poured your heart and soul into it. I’m imagining that you’ll be playing more games in high school, right? So then when you’re super good then, you’ll look back to your first game be and like ‘wow, I’ve improved so much since then, and I will continue to improve.’ It can be an experience you grow from for the future,” you try and comfort the boy. 

Despite your comforting words and reassuring smile, a small frown creeps onto your face, overtaking the smile by a little bit. His first ever official game, his first game in junior high, and it’s against a powerhouse school like yours? A mere thirty-one minutes spent on the court after a year of preparation? What horrible luck he has.

“If it offers you any consolation, I can’t even play my final few games of junior high.” By this time, most of Yukigaoka’s boys’ team have gone off in different directions to give you and their captain some space. Only he and you remain, the black-haired boy muttering a soft apology before leaving with the sandy-haired boy. As you both talk, you choose to move to sit at the top of the staircase.

The boy raises a questioning eyebrow. You save his breath and answer his question before he gets the chance to ask. “I’m injured. Out for the rest of the season.”

“I’m sorry,” he says. A dry laugh passes through your lips. Since when does apologizing improve an injury? You’ve heard countless amounts of apologies—from your teammates, your coach, yourself—it does nothing. Sensing your distress, the boy quickly thinks about how he can change the topic. 

“Ah, I just realized I never introduced myself,” you say. “I’m Oikawa Y/N, third-year at Kitagawa Daiichi, vice-captain ace of the girls’ volleyball team.”

“A-ace?!” The boy exclaims. You nod, slightly confused by his sudden outburst. The boy’s attitude does a complete 180 at the mention of the word ‘ace’. It transfers from sullen and despairing over to excitement. 

“I’m Hinata Shoyo, third-year at Yukigaoka! I want to become an ace!” His brown eyes look into yours, practically beaming. “Say, have you heard of the Little Giant?”

You shake your head. “No, I haven’t.”

“Well, he was the ace of his volleyball team! What’s even cooler is that he’s around my height. I saw him playing on a TV once when I was biking past this electronics store. It’s actually what got me to start playing volleyball. Everyone says I’m too short to become an ace, but I’m going to prove them wrong, just like the Little Giant.” Hinata’s face lights up when he talks of his idol. “That’s why I’m gonna go to Karasuno for high school. They’re a team of crows. There’s where he went. What about you, Oikawa-san? What high school are you going to?”

“That sounds cool,” you grin, purposefully ignoring his question about what high school you’ll be attending. “I’m sure you’ll be just like him. Maybe even better.”

Truthfully, you don’t know what high school you’ll be going to. If you can’t play volleyball, especially at this tournament, you can kiss your scholarship to Aoba Johsai goodbye; even if you’re an Oikawa. Niiyama High seems unreachable at this point. If you can’t play, you can’t be scouted into that school. 

Oh well, if worse comes to worst, you could always take the entrance exam to get in Shiratorizawa—you nearly snort out loud.  _ Never in a million years.  _

Your mind is spiralling with names of different high schools that have good volleyball clubs where you know you can improve.  _ Date Tech. Wakunan. Ayato.  _

You practically deflate when you realize that most of the schools you’re thinking of are invite only schools. You honestly have no clue on what to do now. Although, Hinata did mention Karasuno being ‘crows’ and you do remember Tooru talking about ‘fallen crows’ and a high school.  _ Maybe I could go there? Seems cheesy, but if they’re the ‘fallen crows’ that Tooru mentioned, wouldn’t it only be fitting if I go there? _

“Oikawa-san?” Hinata calls. 

“Ah, sorry, Hinata-kun! I spaced out,” you reply. The list of high schools you’ve formulated in your mind makes you disorientated. “Anyway, I should head off now! I’m supposed to be at my team’s next game and I feel like it’s started already!” You pick yourself off the staircase and quickly head inside.

“O-Oikawa-san! I still don’t know what high—” 

“Thank you for being friendly to me! I hope I’ll see you around again soon!” You say before pulling the entrance door open and disappearing behind it in record time. 

The wind from the door closing breezes over Hinata’s confused face. It’s then he realizes that he’s left alone to his thoughts. Why didn’t you want to answer his question about high school? Why did you go out and comfort him about his loss? And most importantly... how are you taller than him?

Hinata doesn’t dwell on his questions long enough to attempt to figure out an answer—more like he  _ can’t _ —before Izumi and Koji appear from around the corner. They begin to interrogate him about what he and you were talking about and they tease him about getting a girlfriend so soon. The tips of his ears turn red as he shouts at his two best friends, eliciting a good laugh from the duo.

As that’s happening with Hinata outside the building, inside the building with you is a different story. You’re running down the hallway that leads to the stands at nearly full speed, despite the growing pain in your knee. You yell out apologies at the people that are unfortunate enough to be in your path and nearly knock over a confused Kindaichi.

“Oikawa-san?” Kindaichi questions while the both of you recover from the  _ slight _ tumble. Kunimi is off to the side laughing his friend.

“Good job on your game!” You brush the dust off your pants and shoot your classmate a thumbs up. After giving yourself a once over, you’re off running again. “Gotta go, bye! Good luck next game!”

“Bye…?” Kindaichi says, still trying to process what just happened. Kunimi is still laughing at the way Kindaichi fell over the ground and his expression during it, to which the latter gives a sharp jab to the ribs of the former.

You’re out of breath when you arrive at the top of the stairs. The door to the stands is off to the left-hand side. You pull it open, eyes scanning the courts to see if your team is in the gym. You’re breathing heavily from the sprint and try to regulate it. It becomes frantic again when you see your team on one side of the court, followed by Shiratorizawa on the other. Your eyes dart towards the scoreboard, trying to see if the actual match has begun.

Kitagawa Daiichi | 1 | Shiratorizawa

[ 20 - 24 ] 

“What?!” You’re unable to contain your shock. “I missed that much?!” 

You quickly realize you’re standing in front of the door, so you run down the stairs of the stands to sit at the first row closest to the court. Your team’s playing on the second court, easily viewable from where you’re sitting.

_ Shiratorizawa’s at match point _ , you grimace.  _ It’s okay, though. It’s the first set, you can always take the second. Plus, your team’s doing well. _

Although Shiratorizawa’s at match point, your team has the serve. Kamori is in the server’s position. With the tweet of the whistle, she throws the ball up high in the air and smacks it with her right hand, sending the ball soaring to the other side. It’s an easy receive for #10 on Shiratorizawa’s team, who bumps it effortlessly to their setter. 

Your eyes analyze the team before you, following each player with the eyes of a hawk. You notice some new players. You’re watching the wing spikers ready themselves before jumping into the air. The girls on your team counter, middle blocker and wing spikers jumping up with the decoys on Shiratorizawa’s side. However, it all goes to hell when Shiratorizawa’s setter doesn’t set the ball. From your spot in the stands, you can barely see her hands shift, but when you do, it’s too late.

Your jaw drops open as Shiratorizawa’s setter dumps the ball. It’s a bold move from the setter to do a dump in such a crucial point of the game, but unfortunately for you, it works in her favour. Your libero tries to dig the ball but it’s already hit the ground by the time she’s dived down. Another whistle. Shiratorizawa wins the first set. 

_ A setter dump at set point? How infuriating _ ! You think, eye twitching in annoyance. You grip the handles of the railing in front of you, shouting words of encouragement to your teammates. “Don’t mind, don’t mind! We’ll take back the second set!”

You doubt that your team is able to hear you over the shouts from other players in different matches, but you’re proven wrong when Kamori turns around and flashes you a thumbs up. You return the gesture. Kamori smiles and turns back to the coach, most likely discussing new tactics to stop the seemingly unbeatable school.

Before you know it, the second set comes to a start. The two team switches sides; your team ends up on the opposite of the net from where you’re observing. The ball is given to Mikado who’s standing in the server’s spot. It’s a wise choice, as she’s the strongest server on your team, since she has a jump serve. Mikado bounces the volleyball on the ground several times before holding it out in front of her. The whistle is blown.

“Mikado, nice serve!” You call out to your teammate.

Mikado takes a sharp breath, throwing the ball high up in the air and in front of her. She chases after the ball and takes to the air, arm swinging back then forwards, slamming the ball across the court with ferocity. It lands in the back corner of Shiratorizawa’s side. No one is able to receive it.

A Shiratorizawa player rolls the ball under the net back to Mikado. Kitagawa Daiichi’s at one point now. You hope that Mikado will be able to sneak in some more points with some more service aces. To your pleasure, she’s able to rack up four more points with her serves. Each time, they land near the out-of-bounds line with a scary amount of precision. Most times the Shiratorizawa players call the ball as out, but are taken aback when it’s judged as in.

On Mikado’s sixth serve, Shiratorizawa’s libero is able to dig the ball. It flies too far, though, as it sails over the setter’s head. She jumps up at the same time Kamori does, their hands on their side of the ball in a joust. With a swift push from Shiratorizawa’s setter, the ball falls back onto your team’s side. It’s unable to be saved.

The game continues on, as Shiratorizawa makes their first serve. Your kouhai dives for the ball as it’s falling, sending it to your setter. 

“Yutaka-san!” Your setter calls. Kamori jumps up at the same time two Shiratorizawa players marking her do as well. Despite the blockers, Kamori’s hand makes contact with the ball, sending it as a cross. #3 on Shiratorizawa’s team receives it. The setter sends the ball to the ace who barrels through your team’s block. You shudder, but then grow agitated when you think of Shiratorizawa’s ace and her talents. 

The rest of the second set flies by, with Shiratorizawa slowly catching up to the lead that your team has. However, they still manage to stay ahead of your rival school. It seems like it’s in your team’s favour to win the second set. The score is at 24-23, with Shiratorizawa’s serve.

#7 serves the ball underhand. The ball flies in an arc into the waiting arms of your team’s libero. The ball arcs up again towards your setter. You glance around her. Mikado and Kamori are ready to spike, with a couple of decoy kouhais ‘spiking’ the ball. 

But like Shiratorizawa’s setter during the last set, your setter dumps the ball too. It catches you by surprise, not expecting a dump at all. When you watch the Shiratorizawa players attempt to dig the ball and fail, a big, fat, taunting smirk slithers onto your face. 

“Nice, Yu-chan!” You cup your hands around your mouth to amplify its volume. With Kitagawa Daiichi winning the second set, a third one will be needed to break the tie.  _ One more set! One more set until we finally beat Shiratorizawa! _

After a short pause where both teams are able to rest and discuss new strategies, the third set begins. Your team is back on your view of the court now. Shiratorizawa starts with the first serve this time. Yu moves forwards to receive the ball and sends it to your setter, who does a quick set with Mikado. Her spike is in, earning your team the first point of many in the final set. 

In your opinion, the second set had gone by rather quickly, but the third set feels like an eternity filled with only nervousness and anticipation. For every point your team would score, Shiratorizawa would pull ahead with another two. It’s frustrating to you as you watch from the stands. You want to jump in the game yourself and score triple the amount Shiratorizawa does as the rightful ace of the team.  _ Although they’re doing really well without me. They’ll be fine. _

“Kamori-chan, nice serve!” You call out to your fellow third-year. Shiratorizawa’s at 25 points right now, while your team is behind with 24. You’re on the edge of your seat, hands finding purchase around the rail barrier again. Your hands tighten around them as if it’s your lifeline to prevent yourself from jumping down to the court and spiking at the ball straight at Shiratorizawa’s ace. She’s scored many points for her team over the span of these three sets. The ace definitely the main force of her team. 

The thoughts make you wonder if you’re like that too for your team, but you remind yourself that they’ve done this well without you, so perhaps you aren’t.  _ Whatever _ , you think, pouting.  _ I’ll just work harder when I recover. Stupid knee! _

Kamori hits the ball across the net with a controlled serve, opting for precision over power this time. #7 on Shiratorizawa’s team receives it at the last second, originally thinking that the ball was out. In an attempt to challenge your team’s setter again, the one from Shiratorizawa tries to dump the ball. However, your libero is able to read her this time and manages to save the ball. The ball rebounds off of her arms and high up into the air. Mikado wastes no time with running up and slamming the ball down the to ground without a proper set.

To your dismay, Shiratorizawa’s libero is able to save the ball. The ball is set and soars towards #7 in a high arc. She spikes the ball, attempting to get through your team’s two-man block. She isn’t entirely successful, as Yu manages to get a one touch on the ball, sending it flying past the back of the court.

You’re off your seat by now, gripping the top bars of the railing while on your tippy toes. Anticipation courses through every single vein in your body. You clench your jaw as you watch Kamori chase after the ball; she won’t make it in time with a dive.

And she doesn’t. Instead, Kamori stretches her leg out and slides onto the floor, allowing the volleyball to rebound off of it and back towards the court. You breathe out a sigh of relief. Her quick thinking reminds you of the boy in the Kitagawa-Yukigaoka match. 

“Nice save, Kamori-chan!” You yell, eyes fully focused on the ball flying towards Yu despite your comment to your friend. Yu quickly positions herself under the ball and sets it to Mikado. The spiked ball hits the hand of a Shiratorizawa blocker and becomes a one touch. Shiratorizawa’s libero dives for the ball and gets it back up.  _ Damn it! That stupid, talented libero!  _

This time, the Shiratorizawa setter decides to set the ball for the ace of her team. Your jaw tightens again as you watch the ace approach the ball with a small run. When the ace jumps up to spike the ball, Yu, Mikado, and another second-year jump up as well for a three-man block. The ace swings, making contact with the ball. It sails through the second-year’s arms and makes contact with the ground with a crazy amount of speed before anyone could move to save it.

Your intense grip on the rails slacken. You gape at the ball that’s rolling away from the court. A whistle. The flip of a score. 24-26. Shiratorizawa’s win.

Three sets. That’s it. 20-25, 25-23, 24-26. The vicious cycle repeats itself once again.

Although you didn’t play, it feels like you’ve been on the court the entire time. Tears rush to your eyes as you stare at the scoreboard for the nth time.  _ I’m dreaming _ , you say to yourself. But a sharp pinch to your left arm tells you that you aren’t. It’s real. And it hurts. 

You blink, tears falling from your eyes.  _ Why _ ?

20-25, 25-23, 24-26. You don’t know why, but you feel like these numbers will forever be ingrained in your memory. It has been, after all, for the past three years.

You place your right hand over your mouth in shock, still processing what just happened. More tears spring from your eyes as you watch the defeated forms of your teammates line up for a handshake. Even from here, you can see the tears streaming down from their faces. Your heart clenches painfully.  _ We were supposed to win today, not them. Why is it always them? _

You disappear from the stands and head towards the washroom, where you figure that it’s a more private place to be upset. It’s a gruelling walk there, as you will your tears to not spill until you’re by yourself. So when you finally enter the washroom, you let it out. You lock yourself in a stall and slump against the door, sobbing, wishing, cursing, that the match could’ve gone the other way. You wipe your tears away with the sleeve of your jacket. 

Your jacket—your school, Kitagawa Daiichi. Right, you’re the vice-captain of the team.  _ You shouldn’t be in here, crying your heart out over a game you didn’t even play in. You should be with your team and supporting them. You can cry later in your room when there’s no one to watch. You need to be there for your team, vice-captain. _

After you take a couple of deep breaths to stabilize your breathing, you wipe off the final tears that fall from your eyes. When you feel calm enough, you unlock the stall door and make your way to the sink. You turn it on and cup your hands together to catch the water coming from the tap. A few splashes of cold water to your face later, the tear tracks on your face are gone and there are no hints that indicate that you’ve cried—maybe except for your reddened eyes. 

You’re thankful no one else is in the washroom right now. God knows how awkward it’d be if someone is to walk in while you’re in mid-breakdown. You stare at your reflection in the mirror before nodding and holding your chin up high. Satisfied with your current appearance, you walk out of the washroom to search for your team.

You have no idea where your team is right now, so you decide to walk around the building until you come across them or someone who knows where they are. While walking through a new hallway, you run into the same three high schoolers that you watched the Kitagawa-Yukigaoka match with.

The silver-haired boy is the first to notice you. His eyes widen with alarm when he notices your red eyes. “Woah, are you alright?” 

You shake your head. You look at the floor as you reply, “not really. We lost.”

You see the brunette nod in your peripheral vision. “It hurts to lose, no one enjoys it. But what matters most is how you deal with the loss and how you’ll bounce back from it.”

“Daichi-san’s right! So hold your head up high. The next time you go against the team you lost to, be sure to look them in the eye and challenge ‘em,” the bald boy adds.

Your lips curve upwards slightly. You look up from the ground and meet each boy’s eyes before bowing, ignoring the silver-haired boy’s comment on how you didn’t need to the first time. “Thank you. I really appreciate it.”

You come up from the bow and see all three boys smiling at you. “If you’ll excuse me, I need to find my team.”

“They’re wearing the same jacket as you, right?” The brunette asks. You nod. “We passed them earlier, they’re over there.”

With that, you say your goodbye and depart from the trio of boys, heading in the direction that the brunette had pointed to earlier. Thirty seconds after turning the corner into a new hallway, you notice the jackets that match your own near the end of it. You notice that most of the girls aren’t talking, lost in their own thoughts. Mikado and Kamori are conversing quietly, closest to you. They’re most likely discussing the game. 

Mikado, who’s facing you, suddenly pauses mid-sentence. Looking over Kamori’s shoulder, Mikado’s eyes are trained on your figure becoming more and more recognizable as you approach them. She gets a strange look from Kamori, who’s unsure of why the middle blocker has stopped abruptly halfway through her sentence. 

“Mikado-chan?” Kamori asks fellow third-year. She follows Mikado’s line of sight, turning around to see the cause of what made Mikado pause. When Kamori makes eye contact with you, she stiffens. “Y/N-chan…”

You finally arrive at where your team is when Kamori mutters your name. At the mention of their vice-captain ace, the girls’ attention is acquired and they turn to face you. Many of them look away in guilt afterwards, Kamori included. They promised you to win the game, to be successful. But what did they give you? A broken promise; a loss. 

“What are you all so sad about?” Some girls flinch at your harsh tone directed at them. “You’ve all played your best. I’ve seen some of you girls make some plays I’ve never seen before. The match helped you all improve. So what if we lost? You’re not disappointing me if that’s what you’re all worried about. I’ve never been prouder. Next time we face against Shiratorizawa, we’ll look them in the eyes and dare them to try and beat us again.”

“But you’re graduating this year,” someone murmurs quietly. 

“It doesn’t matter if I am. That fire you feel before a hard game, the determination and struggle during the match—channel it and use it to win. So stop moping around and hold your chins up high, because you’ve all played an amazing game.” You finish confidently, looking at each team member as you speak. There’s an air of confidence that seems to have made its way through them.

Kamori laughs. “Right. You heard our vice-captain. What were we thinking? Let’s use this experience and learn from it.”

Almost in perfect unison, the girls on your team move to make their way towards you, Kamori and Mikado. Your hands are outstretched and rest on top of one another as you shout your pregame chant.

“Sometimes I think you’re the captain instead, Y/N-chan,” Kamori nudges you, gathering her things as the coach mentions that the bus has arrived. “Even though you’re a pain in the ass sometimes, you always know how to cheer up our team.”

“Well, that’s what we captains have to do, right?” You nudge Kamori back. “Don’t doubt yourself, Kamori-chan.”

“Right.” 

You and Kamori walk together in comfortable silence afterwards. Once on the bus, you both sit together, Kamori letting you have the window seat. As the bus’ engine is started and slowly comes to a steady speed, your eyes can’t help but linger at the disappearing building of the City Gymnasium.

When the bus turns out of the parking lot and onto the road back to the school, you realize that this moment marks the end of your junior high volleyball career. Three years of hard work have gone by in a blink of an eye. You wonder if this is ending you want. But you can’t control time nor can you change it, so this is what you’re stuck with.

A bittersweet end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello :)
> 
> this chapter wraps up the kitagawa daiichi arc. next chapter will be bird-chan at her future high school. we'll have to see what happens there ohohoho
> 
> not sure if anyone cares but my birthday's in two days and i want to take my driver's test asap but i haven't even started to read the handbook yet... rip me
> 
> have a great rest of your week! thank you for reading!


	6. take flight

Your heart beats rapidly against your chest; your hands’ fiddle with the ends of your backpacks straps out of nervousness. Currently, you’re standing in a completely brand new environment that is filled with different faces and different things. You know this will be a fresh start from Kitagawa Daiichi, as you’re absolutely sure that no one has gone here from your middle school.

As of today, you’ll be a student of Karasuno High School.

It seems almost surreal that you’re here. Sure, you may live closer to Karasuno than your other dream schools, but you’ve never really given this school much thought. You were so sure you’d be going to Aoba Johsai alongside Tooru and Hajime, or maybe even Niiyama Joshi. But what matters is that you’re here now, in front of the large school known as Karasuno; home of the crows.

The main entrance is about twenty feet from where you’re standing. Around you are other nervous first-years that are eager to commence their high school careers. Some are walking on their own towards the entrance and some are with friends from junior high. Hell, some are already making new friends. _Damn it. One foot in front of the other, Y/N._

Once you approach the entrance, you notice that there are older students. You guess that they’re most likely third-years from the school’s welcoming committee. When they notice you, they greet you with an overly enthusiastic smile on their faces.

“Are you a first-year?” Asks a girl from the committee as she steps forward. You reply with a ‘yes’ politely. The third-year nods and tells you that she’ll be leading you to the auditorium, where other first-years will be gathering and waiting until school started. You follow the girl as she walks you to your destination.

It’s a quick walk to the auditorium. The student helping you is trying to make conversation by asking you about your junior high school, what you aspire to be, and if you have any interests in clubs. Despite the girl’s kindness in wanting to get to know you better, you reply with half-hearted answers. You’re too distracted by the size of the school. It looked fairly large on the outside, and now with an inside view of the school, it looks even bigger. Your eyes roam the hallways, memorizing a small portion of each one you pass so if you—no, when you get lost, you’ll hopefully find your way back.

Before you know it, the student and you have arrived at the entrance of the auditorium. She pats you on the back and wishes you the best during your first day of high school. You thank her for her help. She departs afterwards, leaving you to enter the auditorium on your own.

While you expect the auditorium to be a small one, you’re proven wrong again. It’s large, with comfortable red padded chairs lined in many, many rows. You realize that they’re the type of chairs you’d see at the movie theatre—the ones where you have to pull the seat down to sit on.

The stage is far down from the seemingly hundreds of chairs. Who you assume to be the principal and vice-principal are standing proudly on it, chatting amongst one another. You don’t have any more time to analyze the gym, though, as one of the two men tap on the microphone on the podium in front of them to grab everyone’s attention. He asks for everyone to find a seat so they can begin the entrance ceremony. You choose to sit near the back of the auditorium.

Once everyone is seated and are watching the two men on the stage intently, they begin. The introduce themselves and give a small speech on how high school is an important time of your life and how getting involved in clubs and such will benefit you. You end up zoning out for most of it.

The speeches pass by moderately quickly, however, when the vice-principal speaks, you can’t help but look at his hair. You can’t really put your finger on it, but there’s definitely something off about his hair. When two other students near you make a joke about him and his toupée, you realize that his hair is indeed fake. Now that someone else has pointed it out, it looks pretty obvious, despite you not realizing it at first.

The other first-years keep talking about the VP’s toupée and crack some pretty funny jokes if you don’t say so yourself. You try to be polite by holding in your laughter, but you manage to slip up every once and awhile. You think of your own jokes to add in with the other two first-years, but don’t say them aloud. You definitely know that you wouldn’t be able to stop yourself from full-on laughing if you did.

Thankfully, the vice-principals speech ends after a gruesome six minutes of stifling your laughter. From there, the entire auditorium full of first-years is invited onto the stage. Some small ice breakers activities are introduced so that everyone could meet each other and get to know one another.

When you introduce yourself to the people you come across in the activities, you hope that no one will recognize your last name as you introduce yourself. You want to start fresh, where no one knows you as ‘Oikawa Tooru’s little sister’ and rather just ‘Oikawa Y/N, the volleyball player’.

While on the topic of volleyball, you hope that the rest of the day passes by a little faster. You know that the entrance ceremony takes up the entire morning (to your delight), which means that you’ll only have to endure your afternoon classes before the day finishes. And when that happens, you’ll be going off to join the volleyball club.

Your stomach churns in excitement as you think of the volleyball club. You wonder what your new team will look like, will play like. You wonder if they have the same ambitions as you: if they want to crush Shiratorizawa and head to Nationals.

 _Wait_ . A horrible thought flashes in your mind. _Is there even a volleyball club here?_

You freeze in place. When you mentioned to Tooru that you would be attending Karasuno for high school, he mentioned how they were once a powerhouse school when it came to volleyball. When you asked why he used past tense, he told you that they descended from the title of ‘powerhouse’ to a school of ‘fallen crows’.

He also mentioned how they once went to Nationals and how the school started its descent after they were eliminated from it. Despite that, Tooru said that they still rank quite high in the prefecture’s volleyball teams. But that was the boys’ team Tooru spoke of. You try to search for a memory of Tooru talking about the girls’ team as well. To your horror, you can’t. You don’t recall him talking about the girls’ team at all.

“Are you alright?” A voice interrupts your recollection. You turn towards the voice and meet the concerned gaze of a blonde girl with light brown eyes.

“Oh! Yeah, I was just thinking about something…” You trail off, your thoughts drifting off to the volleyball club again. The blonde extends her hand out and introduces herself as Mayu Hikari.

“Oikawa Y/N. It’s a pleasure to meet you, Hikari-chan!” You shake her hand. Hikari looks puzzled with her first name being used so soon, but she brushes it off, replacing it with a smile. If you just used her first name, it means that you don’t hate her. It’s a start, she hopes.

“You too, Y/N-chan!”

Now it’s your turn to be puzzled. You normally address people with their name, followed by a -chan honorific (like your brother, but don’t tell him you said that), but rarely did people do that to you as well. A smile inches its way onto your face with the idea that Hikari will be a good friend. Your first high school friend.

Before you and Hikari can chat more, the vice-principal calls for everyone’s attention again. He gives instructions to line up in front of many tables set up in the lobby of the school by your last name to find your classes. You and Hikari walk out of the auditorium together, asking each other basic questions about junior high. Fortunately, your last names begin with O and M, which means you’ll be lining up at the same table. You’re glad that the two of you don’t have to separate as soon as you’ve met one another; Hikari seems like a kind person.

“Do you know what class you’re going to be in?” Hikari asks once you both secure a spot in the growing line.

“Uh... not really. Maybe Class 1-2?” You respond, an unsure lilt present in your voice. “How about you?”

“The entrance exam wasn’t too hard nor too easy for me, so I think maybe Class 1-3. Or hopefully 1-4? Though I hope we’ll be in the same class; you’re super friendly and nice!” Hikari chirps. You flush at Hikari’s compliment. You wave your hands around yourself as if you’re trying to not accept her praise.

“I hope so too. I look forward to getting to know you more,” you respond, calming down and grinning at Hikari. She returns the grin with one of her own. The conversation shifts into a comfortable silence afterwards. You take the opportunity to observe the lobby.

Your eyes drift around the room, but your eyes are drawn towards the abundance of colourful posters hanging up. As your eyes glance past a baseball club poster, you get the idea of asking Hikari if she’s planning on joining any clubs. It wouldn’t hurt to ask, you figure. Plus, you could find out if there’s a girls’ volleyball club here and if Hikari’s going to join if there is one.

There’s a small seed of doubt at the back of your mind, though. What if there isn’t a girls’ volleyball club? What would you do then? You grimace. You don’t even want to think about that.

Before you can go off on another tangent on what would happen to you if there’s no club, you speak. “Say, Hikari-chan. Do you know what club you’re going to join?”

Hikari hums for a moment, shifting her weight while in thought. “I want to join the volleyball club, but I don’t know if I’m cut out for it.”

“There’s a volleyball club here?” You gush before you can stop it, shouldering releasing the tension in them. You completely overlook the second part of Hikari’s answer.

Hikari nods. “A boys’ and a girls’ club.”

“Oh thank god,” you pinch the bridge of your nose. “I was so worried there wasn’t a club here since no one’s ever mentioned it to me.”

Hikari laughs. The line you’re in shifts again, moving faster than before. You and Hikari near the front of it, where the table is. “What position do you play, Y/N-chan?”

“I’m a wing spiker!” You exclaim with pride, pointing to yourself with your thumb. “I was the ace in my middle school team! I’m gonna keep playing throughout high school, and maybe I’ll even be the ace again! What about you, Hikari-chan?”

“Me?” Hikari asks. She looks shocked at your proclamation of being the ace. You sounded so confident and proud, traits she wishes she possesses herself. You nod feverishly. “You said you wanted to join, right?”

“Oh… I’m a middle blocker, but I’m not that good—”

“Nonsense! As long as you put in the effort to improve, you will! So, Hikari-chan, we’re gonna join the club together and play alongside one another!”

Hikari smiles and straightens her posture, which was slumped over from her doubt earlier. You finally take in her full height and realize that she’s practically half a head taller than you and that you’re looking up at her. It’s a good height for a middle blocker, you note. “Yeah.”

By the time Hikari agrees with you, you both reach the front of the line. You’re standing side-by-side. The boy on the other side of the table looks at you expectantly, to which you look at Hikari. She nods and gives you a little nudge forward to tell you to go first.

“Name?” The boy asks you.

“Oikawa Y/N,” you fiddle with the ends of your sleeves—a nervous habit you’ve developed—as the boy flips through pages and pages filled with names. You hope you’ll be put into a college preparatory class. _The entrance exam wasn’t too arduous_ , you reassure yourself. _But I’m nowhere as confident in my academic skills compared to my volleyball skills._

It doesn’t take him long to find your name since the list of last names beginning with ‘O’ is relatively short.  “Class 1-4.”

You beam, proud of yourself for making into a college prep class. You studied your ass off for the entrance exam, hoping to make it into an advanced class. Sure, the Oikawa’s are a smart bunch, with Tooru being in Class 3-6, but you always thought the smarts stayed with your brother. You beam even more—if possible—when you realize you can brag to your brother about not being _completely_ stupid.

“And you said you thought you were in Class 1-2!” Hikari groans as she smacks your shoulder. You chuckle and make room for Hikari at the table. She gives the boy her name while you stand next to her, waiting.

“Class 1-3.” The boy says with a monotonous voice. He seems bored with all the shuffling he has to do with the papers. You feel bad for him, as you look back at the increasing amount of people in the line.

“That’s too bad,” you say after you and Hikari have moved off to the side. “I thought we’d be in the same class.”

Hikari huffs, “me too. But that’s okay, we’ll still play volleyball together after classes.”

You nod in agreement. The two of you decide on heading to the first years’ hallway a bit earlier so that you could find your classes before they start. You both definitely didn’t want to be late on your first day and embarrass yourselves.

When you walk into the hallway, you expect it to be empty, since most students are still outside in the lobby. But you’re wrong once again, as the hallway is overflowing with students that are also trying to find their classes.

You notice that the closest class to the entrance of the first years’ hallway is Class 1-1, followed by 1-2, 1-3, 1-4, and 1-5, which is near the end. There are many windows on the right side of the hallway, overlooking the grounds below. You could get used to this.

Slowly, you and Hikari walk towards her classroom, Class 1-3. The two of you have taken a slower pace so you could fit more topics into your conversation. It flows easily between the two of you. The both of you speak as if you’ve been friends since elementary, completely comfortable in each other’s presence. Hikari fills you in on her middle school, Chidoriyama, and you do the same. You both inform each other on your lives before arriving at Karasuno, which you both find interesting.

Before you know it, the first bell rings. You bid Hikari goodbye and promise to see her later at volleyball. You head to your class of 1-4 after Hikari walks into her classroom. Since your class is only one away from her’s, you arrive at your class quickly. You pull open the door and enter.

As the door closes behind you, you take in your surroundings. Each desk is lined up by itself and in rows. There aren’t many people here, but that might be because the bell just rang. Most have chosen to sit at the front of the class, the first two rows of desks almost filled with students. It works well for you, though, as you plop into a seat near the back of the class cheerfully.

You swing your bag straps over the back of your chair, suspending it in the air behind you. You turn around and open your bag to grab the materials you think will be needed for class. Placing them on your desk, you prop your elbows on top of your items and rest your head on your hands. You stare at the blackboard at the front of the class and daydream while waiting for the teacher to arrive, bored.

“Look!” A girl near you whispers before you can think of a topic to distract yourself with. Your attention is drawn to her, as you look over your shoulder discreetly. You observe that she’s talking to her friend beside her. “Aren’t they really cute?”

Boldy, the girl points to the two males sitting in the row next to you, but they’re closer to the middle of the class rather than the back. One has blonde hair with black framed glasses as the other has green hair with freckles. They seem to be a busy discussion that doesn’t allow anyone else to but in, although it looks like the green-haired boy is doing most of the talking.

“Yes!” The other girl whispers back to her friend. “They’re super tall too!”

You lift an eyebrow. Your eyes drift to their legs to see if they really are as tall as the girl next to you claims. Your eyes move from the beginning of their hips and down to their feet.

 _Why aren’t my eyes stopping? How long are their legs?!_ You exclaim in your mind. Your jaw nearly drops when you attempt to figure out their heights. You’re still staring at the blonde boy’s legs in shock. Then you feel someone staring at you and you lift your gaze to meet the green-haired boy’s.

Instantly, you tear your gaze from him, choosing to look at the opposite side of the class like nothing had just happened. Your face burns red. You’ve just been caught staring at the boy and his friend.

No, not just staring at them, staring at their _legs_ for god’s sake.

With an attempt to calm yourself down and pretend that nothing happened, you look around the opposite side of the class. You notice that the teacher’s just entered through the door. She places her briefcase onto the desk with a loud bang, grabbing the attention of the chatting students.

She then turns around and picks up a piece of chalk. The familiar sound of chalk scratching against a chalkboard soon follows. Your attention is drawn to what she’s writing. Your eyes follow every stroke of kanji that leaves from the chalk onto the board.

Once the teacher’s hand leaves the board and she moves to the side, you’re able to fully read what’s on the board. On it is the teacher’s name. She reads her name aloud and gives a short introduction about herself. When she finishes, the teacher instructs everyone to go around the class and introduce themselves and add a fun fact about them. You inwardly groan upon hearing the instructions. _This is absolutely terrible._

Since you’re sitting at the back of the class, there are many other students that go before it’s your turn. You zone out for most of the introductions that happen. Although, you do manage to catch the names of the blonde and his green-haired friend: Tsukishima Kei and Yamaguchi Tadashi. You nearly flush again just rethinking of the latter catching you staring at them. What if they think you’re some kind of creep?

While you’re deep in thought again, you notice that the boy sitting in front of you stands up. After a couple of seconds, he sits back down, signalling that it’s your turn. You sigh quietly, wanting to get this over with and stand up. You offer a small bow to your teacher and classmates before introducing yourself.

“I’m Oikawa Y/N,” you introduce. “I play volleyball.”

There. It’s done; short and sweet, unlike some other students that practically gave their entire life story. You catch the stare of Yamaguchi when you sit back down. He wasn’t looking at you during your introduction. Maybe he’s interested in the fact you mentioned that you play volleyball?

The girls next to you, who were fawning over Tsukishima and Yamaguchi earlier, talk about your last name in hushed whispers. Murmurs break out throughout the classroom afterwards. You suppress a groan and the urge to slam your head against the desk out of frustration. _Great. Just, great._

“Are you related to Oikawa Tooru?” The girl who called the two boys cute whispers over to you.

“Yes,” you mumble. She squeals in excitement and looks like she’s about to ask your more about your brother, but the teacher shushes her before she can. You send the teacher many thanks in your mind.

One of the things you did hope for with going to Karasuno is to not be recognized as ‘Oikawa Tooru’s little sister’. As much as you love him, it’s irritating to be referred to as only that. You have a name too! You’re always compared to him as well, from looks to volleyball to academics. It bothered you to no end.

But what you could say is the absolute worst thing about being known as ‘Oikawa Tooru’s little sister’ is his horde of fangirls and the occasional fanboy. They would constantly ask you questions about him, about how he’s doing, what his plans are, etc. You would always give out false information or reply with snippy comments. No way would you sell out your brother like that to Oikawa Tooru thirsty fangirls/fanboys.

In some drastic cases, they would try to become your friend so they would be able to come to your house to see Tooru. It was absolutely disgusting when you found out that one of your ‘friends’ in junior high was only friends with you so that she would be able to see your brother more. It made you feel used and horrible about yourself. When Tooru caught word of this, he nearly lost it.

You grimace when you think of that happening again at Karasuno. You have no clue as to how your brother manages to put up with his fangirls/fanboys.

The rest of the introductions wrap up quickly since you were one of the last people to go. The teacher takes over from there. She explains the course she’ll be teaching and gives everyone a syllabus with the units on it. Class is pretty much boring from there, with worksheets and such being completed.

To your delight, the dismissal bell rings while you’re working on a handout that you have no idea what to do on. Over the noisy sounds of everyone packing up their things, the teacher shouts that she’ll be handing out club application forms at the door.

With the announcement of club application forms, you pick up your pace with packing up your things. You rush to the door and grab a form from your teacher and fill out the information needed. You head to the nearest washroom afterwards, changing from your school uniform to your maroon coloured gym uniform. Once you finish in record timing, you’re off to join the volleyball club as fast as you can. You run down the hallways while dodging several presidents of certain clubs as they try and stop you to convince you to join their club.

After all, you have only one club in mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ahh sorry this is pretty late compared to usual!! i've been super busy this week. this week's chapter is a bit short too, but it's because this one and the next were originally written as one, but it ended up being over 11k words LOL. so i thought cutting it off where the chapter ended would be okay and hopefully it is!
> 
> thank you for reading! see you next week :)


	7. the girls' volleyball club

After running around and dodging club presidents for a while, you realize that you have no idea where the sign up for the girls’ volleyball club is. You visibly deflate. You look around and notice that there are some tables set up for each club, boasting about the things they offer in order to obtain new members. There are several clubs without the tables, favouring to go to multiple groups of new students to persuade them to join first-hand.

Your eyes scan the hallway to look for someone who seems like they would be in the volleyball club. Perhaps someone else who isn’t hellbent on making you join their club would suffice too. Hopefully, they could redirect you to where you need to go.

Your eyes pause when they come across a female’s back. Embroidered in white against the black of the jacket she’s wearing are the words ‘Karasuno High School Volleyball Club’. A pair of matching pants help to complete the tracksuit.

 _Bingo_.

You notice that the female isn’t currently engaged in conversation. Before she is, you quickly make a beeline towards her. It’s some pretty good timing if you don’t say so yourself. If she’s talking to someone else and you walk up, you’d have to awkwardly stand by and wait until they’re done. You didn’t want to waste that much time idling. You tap her shoulder politely to get her attention. She turns around and gives you a small but warm smile.

“Hello! I’m Oikawa Y/N, a first-year here. I was just wondering if you’re apart of the girls’ volleyball club?” You ask optimistically, eager to find the club.

The girl laughs lightly. Her black hair sways way the movement, gray eyes lighting up. She pushes her glasses up her pristine face, which causes you to notice a small beauty mark on the lower part of her chin. You take in her beauty. _She looks like a goddess._

“No, no. I probably can’t play volleyball to save my life,” the girl responds. “I’m the third-year manager of the boys’ team. Shimizu Kiyoko.”

You exhale with a frown and slump over a bit in defeat. Hopefully, you’ll be able to find it soon, as club activities will be starting soon. After realizing you’re in front of a third-year, you straighten up and change your defeated expression.

“Do you know where it is, by any chance?”

Shimizu nods, to your delight. A smile makes its way onto your face. She points you to the opposite direction you were running in. “The girls practice in the First Gymnasium. The captain of the team is Michimiya Yui, who is also a third year. She has short brown hair and brown eyes, shorter than the both of us. She’s walking around the end of this hall, near where the gym is.”

Your eyes sparkle with joy at the information. “Thank you, Shimizu-san!”

Shimizu smiles again and nods. You mirror her smile and wish her goodbye as you continue to make your way down the hallway. You pick up your pace, moving even faster than before.

Once you pass the president of the photography club, you suddenly spot who you presume is the captain of the girls’ volleyball club.  You compare the assumed captain to the description that Shimizu gave you moments before.

 _Shorter than me, check. Brown hair, check. Brown eyes, check. Okay, let’s do this_.

“Excuse me?” You say, walking up to the captain. “Are you the captain of the girls’ volleyball club?”

“Oh yes, that’s me! How can I help you?” You notice a gleam of hope in the captain’s eyes. Maybe she’s just as excited as you are. After all, the club would be—hopefully—getting new members.

You quickly bow to the captain, hands extending the form application in your hands to her. “I would like to join the club. Please accept my application!”

The captain waves her hands dismissively, slightly flushing from your bow. She takes the form from your hands. “T-there’s no need to bow!”

With her words, you come up your bow and introduce yourself properly. The captain introduces herself as well, and as Shimizu’s told you, her name is Michimiya Yui.

She then directs you to the First Gymnasium, saying that the other club members and more potential first-years would be arriving shortly. She says she’ll join you soon after waiting for some more members.

Before you depart, you thank the captain—well, now _your_ captain by addressing her by her last name followed by a -senpai prefix. She flushes again and tells you that you could address her without it, now that you’re teammates. You grin and accept happily, settling with playfully calling her Michi-chan.

After the short exchange, you finally make your way to the gym. A warm feeling washes over your body as you walk in the direction towards it. The beginning of your journey in Karasuno’s volleyball club has gone well so far. Michimiya seems like a wonderful, kind captain. It makes you wonder how the rest of the team is.

As you approach the gym, you make out the words ‘First Gymnasium’ printed on a board that is placed above the doors of the entrance. The warm feeling is replaced by anxious excitement. You pull open the doors, expecting to be met with girls receiving, setting, and spiking, only to be met with… _no one_?

You’re the first one here. However, the nets are already set up, to your delight. Getting them set up, especially by yourself, is always a pain in the ass. The gym door closes behind you with a large slam that jolts you back into reality. Your eyes scan the gym before you. There’s only one full court, with benches scattered throughout the gym. There’s a small storage room on the other side of the gym, presumably filled with gym equipment.

You make your way to the closest bench and drop your volleyball and school bag there. You sit on the bench, waiting for the rest of the team to come. When the five-minute mark passes, you find yourself itching to play volleyball. After all, you’ve been cleared to play competitively again two weeks ago. You haven’t had the chance to practice at home with Tooru either during the break; he didn’t even want you _near_ a volleyball the entire time.

You place your black volleyball bag onto your lap. You unzip the bag and dig through the various contents inside to find your knee pads and shoes. When your fingers brush against the familiar materials, you pull them out. Held in your right hand are your matching knee pads, with your volleyball shoes in your left.

When you slip them on, you notice that they’ve gotten a little smaller. It makes sense though; you’ve had them since junior high. You make a mental note to go to a sports store and buy some new ones sometime when you’re free.

While zipping up your volleyball bag, you can’t help but notice the gray material of your knee brace peeking out from under your school uniform. You smirk at it. _I won’t be needing you anymore_.

Your next destination is the storage room. Your hand reaches out to pull the incredibly small handle open. Luckily, the door is unlocked. It creaks open, revealing the darkness inside. You poke in your head into the room in confusion and look for the light switch.

When you can’t find it, you frown and stick your head back out. You look over your shoulder on the right and notice the lights switch. It’s been on the wall outside of the storage room the entire time. You snort at your stupidity while flicking the switch on. You watch as the storage room comes to life. When it’s fully illuminated inside, you head in. Inside are several different things: mops, brooms, basketballs, nets, poles, volleyballs—

 _The volleyballs_! You think. In a wooden box with a deep dip in the middle hold many inflated volleyballs. Subsequent to observing the top of the cart, you notice that there are wheels at the bottom of it. You let out a sigh of relief. You have no idea how you would move the cart out of the storage room if there weren’t any.

While you wheel the cart of volleyballs out of the storage room, you notice there’s another figure standing at the benches.

“Y/N-chan!” The figure calls out. “Hey!”

“Oh, Hikari-chan, hi!” You respond after seeing that it’s your new-found friend. You roll the cart of volleyballs over to where she’s standing. “How were your classes?”

“They were okay. I talked to some other classmates but none of them are as amazing as you,” Hikari winks at you. “Although there was this one guy who looked like he wanted to murder everyone there.”

You laugh. “That’s funny. I used to know a guy in middle school who was like that.” You wonder what high school he’s attending now. Maybe Shiratorizawa? You do remember him mentioning that he was going to try getting into said school, but that was a while ago. Perhaps he changed his mind and decided to go to a different school? No, that shouldn’t be possible. He was dead set on making it into there.

After laughing along with you, Hikari asks how your classes went. You give her a quick briefing of your class, omitting the part about getting caught while staring at Tsukishima Kei’s legs and the girls murmuring about you being related to Oikawa Tooru.

You frown when you’re met with a horrible thought; what if Hikari’s using you to get to your brother? Your frown deepens as you scold yourself for thinking of Hikari in that manner. If she really is a fan of him, she would’ve recognized your last name and most likely would’ve said something about it by now.

“Y/N-chan?” Hikari waves a hand over your face to get your attention. You blink and refocus on her while apologizing for zoning out. Hikari giggles and says she doesn’t mind. She then looks around the gym to see if any other club members are around. To her surprise, there aren’t. Hikari then asks if there’s anyone else other than the two of you here, to which you reply no. You ask her nearly the same thing and receive an identical answer.

“Hm… I guess we’re the first ones here then,” you conclude. “Michi-chan said that she’d be coming in soon with the rest of the team, so hopefully they’ll be here soon.”

“Michi-chan?” Hikari questions. She wonders if this is something you do often:  adding ‘-chan’ everyone’s names regardless of their age. She doesn’t know if she should admire your confidence and boldness or be worried.

“Yeah! The captain,” you clarify happily, taking her confusion to be that she doesn’t know who the captain is instead of the casual way you’ve referred an upperclassman.

“Yeah! The captain,” you clarify happily. You think that Hikari’s confusion is caused by her not knowing who the captain is, but it’s really because of the casual way you’ve called your upperclassman.

“Oh, Michimiya-san?” Hikari emphasizes that ‘san’. She wants to see if you’d correct yourself after referring to the captain the way you did. When you nod and pay no mind to the way you’ve addressed her, Hikari sighs and drops the subject. _Guess it is a Y/N-chan thing._

The conversation carries on with you asking Hikari if she wants to practice for a little bit while you’re waiting for the rest of the members to arrive. Hikari agrees and mentions that she hasn’t played since junior high; she chose to rest over the break instead of play. A little practice never hurt anyone, and you figure that’s what you and Hikari both need right now.

Prior to brushing up on the main skills of volleyball, you suggest that you and Hikari warm up first to prevent injury. Once Hikari nods in agreement, you begin stretching. Hikari follows your lead as you stretch your neck first. You work your way down afterwards, stretching the muscles you’ll be needing. As you slide your legs into a lunge, a small smile spreads across your face when you realize your knee isn’t hurting while being used. It feels liberating, to not worry about an aching knee all the time.

After finishing the last leg stretch in your self-made routine, you ask Hikari if she’s up for a small jog. Hikari bites back a groan when you ask. Running is definitely not one of her strong suits, but she sucks it up when she remembers her old coach at Chidoriyama telling her that running will benefit her during an actual game. Still, running is something Hikari dislikes with a passion.

“Sure. I think three laps around the gym should be good?”

“Yeah, I think that’ll be enough for now.”

For now? Hikari thinks as the both of you walk towards the entrance of the gym to begin your run. Once you both arrive, you immediately break off into a light jog. Hikari follows after you, but she’s nowhere as fast as you are. You’re nearly halfway across the perimeter of the gym when Hikari rounds her first corner.

 _This is Y/N-chan jogging_?! Hikari screeches in her mind. She speeds up a bit when you pass the three-fourths mark of the gym, not wanting to embarrass herself too badly by behind far behind. The sudden burst of speed depletes Hikari’s stamina even more, causing her to pant for air. What’s even worse is that this is only the first lap, there’s two more to go.

After Hikari finishes what she’d like to call ‘the most gruelling three laps I’ve ever done’, she’s bent over gasping for air to come into her burning lungs. Her hands rest on her knees as her heart thumps rapidly in her chest. Hikari tilts her head up to look at your state and immediately feels embarrassed. You’re standing tall and proud like you’ve finished first place in a marathon. Your breathing is a bit faster than the average person, but nowhere near Hikari’s.

“You’re...” Hikari tries to even out her breathing. “You’re so fast! And you’re not even tired?!”

You laugh at your friend’s shock and offer her a nice pat on her back. “Believe it or not, I used to suck at running. I absolutely hated it, but my junior high coach made me run so much I eventually got used to it and actually ended up enjoying it. Bizzare, right? Now I go on runs often at home too. It builds up speed, endurance, and stamina, so I’m not complaining. At least not anymore.”

The thought of running—outside, no less—out of your own free will almost sends Hikari down to the pits of hell. Running three laps around the perimeter of the gym was bad enough for her, but running outside for who knows how long? Especially with people that can watch you struggle? Hikari nearly shudders. You laugh again at her state.

“Well, I guess you do need the stamina when you’re the ace. You’re depended on the most, and you can’t be depended on if you can’t keep up with the pace of the game,” Hikari says, her erratic breathing finally returning to her normal pace.

You’ve walked back to your bag and are drinking from your water bottle as Hikari says this. You swallow the water quickly to answer your friend promptly.

“Yes, that’s true; but I was the ace in junior high, not now. Besides, high school aces are so much cooler anyway, so I hope I can re-earn that title one day.”

“With those skills? You definitely will,” Hikari beams at you.

“You haven’t even seen me play yet, Hikari-chan.” You laugh. “I could actually be really bad, for all you know. Plus I haven’t played in about six weeks, so I bet I’m incredibly rusty right now.”

A moment of silence passes through your conversation. Hikari looks deep in thought, her lips pulling slightly downwards as her eyebrows furrow in concentration.

“If you’re really rusty I don’t think you would’ve run like you just did earlier, Y/N-chan. Sure you may not be in top-form anymore, but you can always work your way back there again. So I highly doubt you’re ‘incredibly rusty’, and that’s why I’m going to set a ball for you to spike!”

Hikari’s words resonate in your mind even after it’s been said. _You can always work your way back there again._ She’s right. If you love what you’re doing and there’s an obstacle preventing you from doing so, you’ll always find a way around it. That’s exactly what you’ll do. You’ve found a way around your knee issues; your next obstacle is returning to your former skill level.

As you look into Hikari’s eyes, she notices that the melancholic glimmer in them has faded and has been replaced with a burning fire. There are many things igniting this newly lit fire: determination, purpose, courage, the will to fly.

You nod at Hikari’s exclamation. The familiar rush of excitement you get when you spike a ball fills you and makes you eager to do so.

Both of you quickly move towards the already set up net, bringing the cart of volleyballs along with you. Out of the two of you, you’re the first one to stop walking, as you’re standing behind the attack line with the cart of volleyballs beside you. Hikari continues on until she reaches the front middle of the net. She notices that you’ll be spiking from the left side, which makes sense, considering that most aces are left-wing spikers.

“Ready?” You ask Hikari when she looks settled in her position. When she sends you a thumbs up, you grab a volleyball from the cart, sending her a smile before starting the drill. She reciprocates it, willing you to begin.

Taking a deep breath in, you throw the ball up high over Hikari’s head, allowing sufficient time for her to maneuver under the ball and send a high toss towards you. You watch the ball with the eyes of a hawk; knees bent; ready to go after that ball as soon as it’s tossed back up into the air.

You envision yourself moving your legs forwards and swinging your arms back as you take off from the ground into the air, about to hit Hikari’s toss. You wait to hear the slam of the ball against the court, feel the sting of the hit on your hand. But that’s what you want to happen.

In reality, the ball doesn’t fly back up highly in the air with a beautiful arc. Only Hikari’s fingertips graze the ball, sending it flying only a couple of feet in front of her with a crazy spin to it.

“Sorry!” Hikari shouts as the ball bounces against the ground. You stare at the ball as it rolls away to one end of the gym, not hearing Hikari’s apology. “I haven’t tried to set a ball before, since I normally just block—”

“Don’t mind!” You exclaim, snapping out of it. You wave your hand around dismissively. “Let’s do it again!”

With your enthusiasm, Hikari swallows her self-doubt and wills herself to try again. However, the next couple of sets also don’t go as well as Hikari hopes. To Hikari’s frustration, three main problems keep occurring: the ball goes up too high and doesn’t match the timing of your jump, the ball flies too far from where you are, or the ball stops too short from where you’ve jumped.

Every time you or Hikari have missed the ball, you tell her to not mind and that you’ll try again. After each failure, you’d tell Hikari that the next set would be the one to try and keep her morale up, but Hikari can see right through you. You’re frustrated. You’re disappointed. You want to spike the ball; you’re craving it.

After the nth failed attempt, Hikari’s beyond frustrated. The frustration has transferred over to her already poor setting skills, making them even more impossible for you to reach. She looks over to you and despite the exasperation coursing through your veins, the fire is still burning in your eyes. It forces her to take a deep breath in and out while closing her eyes. When Hikari opens them, she feels as if there’s been newfound energy that’s entered her system.

Sensing Hikari’s shift in mood, you dip your head down slightly into a nod. Your friend mirrors you with a smile added. You grab another ball from the cart and throw it towards her. The ball sails to Hikari like all the other times, high up and above her head.

Hikari places her hands above her forehead and positions herself under the ball, some advice you had given her fifteen attempts ago. She can see the ball through the triangle formed between her hands. As the ball begins to descend into Hikari’s waiting hands, she can’t help but feel that this is the one.

The image of the volleyball flying in the air near you reflects in your eyes. You watch the ball in anticipation as it falls lower and lower. As it does Hikari tells herself to stay calm; she has to get it this time. Hikari bends her elbows down and up when the ball touches her fingertips. She watches in awe as the ball sails not only in front of her, but towards your position as well.

Your face immediately brightens when you realize that Hikari’s done it; she’s set the ball! It flies in the air in a high arc, a set where you can easily spike it. You take off excitedly to meet the ball in the air. Hikari notices your beaming face when you extend your right arm, then hand, to spike the ball. The ball rebounds from your palm milliseconds after.

 _SLAM_!

As the ball hits the back right corner of the other side of the court with a resounding slam, Hikari’s jaw drops open. There was just _so_ much power in your spike. Her eyes follow the ball and watch the ball bounce up and down several times before rolling off to the wall behind it.

“Woah! Nice spike!”

You and Hikari turn towards the voice and meets a girl with dirty blonde hair and light brown eyes. Instantly, you notice that there are other girls behind her that are making their way towards the three of you. You assume that they’re the remainder of the club members.

“Thank you!” You bow at your most likely upperclassman, radiating happiness after finally getting to spike the ball. You turn to a still shell-shocked Hikari and thank her as well. You don’t think she hears you though, as she’s gaping at her palms, not believing she finally was able to set the ball of you.

Soon you’re whisked away into conversation with the other club members. They asked you questions about how you were able to spike like that, what junior high school you came from, etc. As you answer the seemingly infinite questions thrown at you, Hikari recovers from her shock. She lowers her hands to her side and observes you and the other club members, deep in thought. Hikari can’t believe that your spike was that powerful.

 _You mentioned that you haven’t played in six weeks and that was the force of it? What’s your spike like with full power?_ _If you love volleyball as much as you do, and you’re as good as I think you are, why would you stop for that long? Especially with a spike like that?_ Hikari wonders as she watches you chat with the blonde. She makes a note to herself to ask you about it later.

Hikari can’t dwell on her thoughts long enough to figure out a possible answer, as the captain of the club walks into the gymnasium. She appears to be the last one to enter. When the double doors slam shut, Michimiya makes her way towards the already formed circle. She smiles when she notices that everyone’s already talking to one another. It seems like you’re all getting along too, which is great for a team.

“Alright, everyone!” Michimiya claps her hands together to try and get everyone’s attention. She succeeds as the chatter stops and the gym becomes quiet. The attention of the club members is redirected to the captain.

“I was the last one in, so I guess this is all the club members for today,” Michimiya pauses for a bit, doing a fast headcount of the number of girls present. She smiles, pleased with the fact that everyone has shown up for today’s practice.

“Let’s introduce ourselves to the new first years so we can all know each other better!” Michimiya suggests. “Let’s say our names and positions. I’ll start; I’m Michimiya Yui, a third-year. I’m a wing spiker and also the captain of the team.”

Michimiya then looks to her right, at the girl who complimented you earlier on your spike. She goes next. “I’m Mao Aihara, third-year ace! I’m also the vice-captain.”

“Rinko Sudou,” a girl with short black hair parted on the left says. “Second-year middle blocker.”

With the mention of Rinko’s position, your eyes shift over to Hikari. You compare their heights and notice that Hikari’s taller than Rinko, probably by about an inch or so.

Manami Aoki is next to introduce herself as the setter of the team. After Manami is Nozomi Watabe, the libero. They’re both second years, both with brown hair and brown eyes.

Chizuru Sasaki is the third middle blocker to introduce herself, donning olive hair and olive eyes. Like Michimiya and Aihara, she’s also a third-year. You notice that she’s the same height as Rinko.

Isamu Kettei, Moe Kikuchi, Iki Mio, and Koharu Akane are the last members of the club to introduce themselves before it’s the first-years turns. They’re all fellow wing spikers, all second-years except for Koharu, who’s a third-year.

The rest of the club members then turn towards the first-years, waiting for them to say their introductions. Sakura Yuno is the first to introduce herself, followed by Reo Yuuki. The former is a setter; the latter a middle blocker. Hikari goes after Reo, leaving you to be the last one to go.

“I’m Oikawa Y/N,” you say, wearing the typical charming Oikawa smile on your face. “I’m a first-year wing spiker.”

“I thought so!” Aihara cries after you finish speaking. “After seeing that spike, if you were anything but a wing spiker I think I would’ve lost my mind!”

“Oh?” Michimiya says with an interested tone to her voice. “The ace of the club says you have a good spike?”

You laugh out of nervousness, but also because of another compliment from the ace, of all people. “I-I guess so?”

“She sure does!” Hikari exclaims. “It was so good and so fast and so quick and—”

“Okay, okay, we get it,” you cut Hikari off before she can continue. Your face is a bright red from the words of praise from your friend and senpai.

“If it’s as good as you claim, Aihara-chan, maybe we should play a practice game?” Michimiya suggests evilly. She figures she might as well take advantage of the opportunity of a practice game. It’s the first practice in a while where everyone’s been present. Plus, it is a tradition to play a game against the first-years to see their skills. They usually have a couple of days to prepare, but Michimiya thinks that throwing them into a situation like this with no prior practice would test their adaptability.

“Since we have…” Michimiya pauses and recalls her headcount from earlier. “Fourteen here, including me, we should do a game of six-on-six with—actually, nevermind. Let’s do four-on-four. I wanna see what the first-years are made of. It’s pretty sudden and I’m throwing you guys into it, my apologies. But, are you guys up for it?”

You grin in excitement. You look at Hikari, then Sakura, then Reo before replying. They all look like they want to.

“Definitely!” You reply.

Michimiya smiles. “Great! The other team will be made of me, Manami, Rinko, and Aihara. I’ll give you guys about ten minutes to get acquainted and come up with some strategies since you’ve all just met.”

While Michimiya meets up with her newly formed team, you meet up with yours. The four of you group on one side of the court while Michimiya’s team goes on the opposite side. The rest of the girls go to find some scorekeeping items.

“Hey!” Sakura says as you and Hikari approach her and Reo. They were in comfortable conversation earlier and it seems like they know each other well. It makes you wonder if they went to the same school for junior high.

“Hello!” You chirp back at Sakura. “What classes are you guys in?”

“We’re both in Class 1-2,” Reo answers, confirming your assumption. “We also went to the same middle school. What about you guys?”

“Class 1-3! I went to Chidoriyama and I played a bit of volleyball there,” Hikari says.

“I’m in Class 1-4. I went to Kitagawa Daiichi,” you reply.

“Kitagawa Daiichi?!” Sakura exclaims. “Isn’t that a powerhouse school for volleyball? I heard that Chidoriyama is super good too!”

“Eheh, yeah,” you rub the back of your head sheepishly as Sakura mentions how good you and Hikari must be if you’ve come from powerhouse schools like those. Hikari flushes and says that she was a reserve player.

From there, the four of you discuss some strategies and Sakura teaches some easy hand signals for sets since you and Hikari haven’t hit any of her sets before. Your strengths and weaknesses are revealed to one another to help when needed and to also figure out the starting rotation. The ten minutes are soon up, signalling the start of the game.

“Alright then, we got this in the bag!” Reo exclaims.

“Let’s go, Saku-chan, Reu-chan, Hikari-chan!” You flash them a peace sign, giving the first two some nicknames. They’re more so friendly nicknames rather than condescending, as you figure that the four of you will be good teammates and potentially friends in the future. There’s just something that you felt click between the four of you during those ten minutes of discussion.

As you walk off to your starting position at the left front, Sakura and Reo watch you with confused expressions on their faces.

“Did she just call us Saku-chan and Reu-chan?” Sakura asks.

Reo nods, confirming her friend’s question. “Maybe she just heard our names wrong?”

Hikari laughs, the two girls turning to look at Hikari in confusion. “I’m guessing that it’s just something she does often. She called Michimiya-san ‘Michi-chan’ earlier. When we first met a couple of hours ago, she called me ‘Hikari-chan’ straight away. Now she’s calling you two Saku-chan and Reu-chan. I’m sorry if she comes off as rude by doing so, I haven’t known her long, but I can vouch that she really is a kind person!”

“No, no, it’s fine! I was just taken aback. If she gave us nicknames, doesn’t it mean she feels comfortable around us?” Sakura ponders.

“Yeah! Plus, when we were talking she seemed to trust us completely with everything we were saying even though we met ten minutes ago.” Reo adds.

“Well, I hope that it means we’ll all be good friends together,” Hikari smiles at the duo.

“We hope so too!” They say back in unison, wearing large smiles. You turn around from your position at the net and look at the trio behind you, who’re still conversing. “Come on, slowpokes!”

“Yeah, yeah. You’re just the fast one!”

After the short coin toss between you and Michimiya, she chooses for her team to serve first. Nozomi passes Michimiya a volleyball, who catches it and bring it to her side of the court. Analyzing their positions, you note that Michimiya is serving, with Koharu on her left. Manami is in front of Michimiya and Rinko is in front of Koharu.

Your team heads to your designated positions that you guys discussed earlier while trying to figure out some strategies. You’re on the front left of the court while Sakura is on the front right. Hikari is behind you while Reo is behind Sakura.

The scorekeepers are Isamu and Moe, while Nozomi, Chizuru, and Iki are reffing. If you say that you’re not nervous, you’d be lying. You’ve never played with the three girls on your side of the court before. But you’ve got to adjust to it quickly, as they’ll be your teammates for the next three years.

 _How well will we sync up_? _Will we be able to_? _How good is the other team_?

Nozomi blows on the whistle, signalling the start of the game. Michimiya bends down and swings her arm under the volleyball, sending it over as an underhand serve. The ball flies over onto your side of the court in a high arc.

“I got it!” Reo says, bumping the ball perfectly over to Sakura.

“Left!” You call for the ball. Sakura glances over at your position for a split second. “Y/N-chan!”

Rinko quickly runs over to where Manami is standing. They jump together to attempt to block your spike. You slam your hand against the ball with ferocity into a cross. Aihara fails to receive it because of its sheer force, earning your team your first point.

“Yes!” Your team shouts. You all give each other high-fives with big grins. The nervousness you had from earlier begins to fade. Perhaps you guys do match up well after all.

“Did you just see her spike?” Isamu whispers over to Moe as she flips over your team’s score from 00 to 01.

Moe nods. “I probably would lose an arm if I tried to receive that, holy smokes.”

Your team rotates, with Sakura being the first person to serve on your team. She bounces the ball against the floor a couple of times before she gets into her starting position. With the tweet of the whistle, she throws the ball up and smacks it with her right hand.

The ball spins to the left of the court. Michimiya receives the ball sends it to Manami, who sets it to Rinko. You choose to read block, watching where the ball goes before jumping up when Rinko’s at the apex of her jump. She spikes the ball but it’s deflected downwards back onto her side of the court by your block. Michimiya dives for the ball but is too late. You’ve just earned your second point of the game.

“Nice block!” Hikari shouts from next to you.

“Thanks!” You say back. Sakura has the volleyball now, preparing for another serve. “Saku-chan, nice serve!”

Sakura serves the ball again in an overhand. You expect it to end up near Michimiya, but Sakura serves it short so that Manami is forced to receive it. With the setter unable to touch the ball again, Rinko sets it to Michimiya. Her set is a bit low, though. Michimiya still manages to spike it, however, Hikari manages to get a one-touch on the volleyball.

“Got it!” Reo calls, digging the ball and sending it over to Sakura. She sets the ball for Hikari, who spikes it directly at Aihara by accident.

Manami maneuvers under the ball and sets it to the back at Aihara. She spikes the ball from behind the attack line. The ball flies over to the end of your court. Sakura digs for the ball and receives it, but it flies backwards. Reo can’t reach the ball in time.

“Ah, sorry!” Sakura shouts.

“Don’t mind!” Hikari and Reo say back.

“Yeah, we’ll get the next one!” You encourage her.

“Nice serve, Manami!” Aihara says. Manami serves the ball underhand in a high arc, the volleyball falling straight down into Hikari’s waiting arms. Sakura sets the ball for Reo, who does a feint when she comes across Rinko and Aihara’s block, earning your team its third point.

After a short cheer, your team rotates clockwise, with you being in the server’s spot. Your defence is now at its peak, with your two middle blockers, Reo and Hikari at the front of the court. Sakura is next to you, ready to run up to the net after your serve.

“Hit a nice serve, Y/N-chan!” Sakura calls from next to you. You grin at her, spinning the ball in between your hands before stopping it. Spinning the ball in between your hands is something you do before every serve, sort of as a prep and good luck charm. You’ve seen some people bounce the ball against the floor multiple times and some roll the ball around in the hands, but you like to do it your way. (You actually stole the move from Tooru, after seeing him do it when you watched one of his volleyball games. In your defence, you thought it looked really cool).

You take a deep breath in and watch the position of the players on the other side of the court. You throw the ball up with your left hand and smack it with your right, watching as the ball lands in between Manami and Michimiya. They both call for the ball, causing confusion. The ball hits the ground before one of them could save it.

“Service ace!” Reo cheers. “Do it again, Y/N-chan!”

On the other side, Michimiya smirks in her mind. _The first-years are matching up well despite being thrown together fifteen minutes ago. This is good news. Maybe with the addition of them, the team will be motivated to show up to more practices. Then we can improve together and maybe win Inter-High_!

“Whoops!” Michimiya shouts when the volleyball whizzes past her ear. She was too busy in her thoughts to realize that you’ve already served the ball. “Sorry!”

“Come on, Captain! Focus!” Aihara shouts. “I know they’re really good, so that’s why we’ve gotta do better!”

“Right,” Michimiya smiles. _The team’s already getting motivated to do better. This is great._

“Bring it!” You shout from the other side.

Reo nods in agreement, “we’re not losing that easily!”

With your serves and spikes, Sakura’s setting, and Hikari and Reo’s blocks, your team excels easily against the other team. Your team eventually wins both sets, cheering excitedly with one another when you spike the winning point.

The other team is shocked at how well your team was able to sync up so easily. You’ve all just met each other today, thrown into a team together, and managed to win against a team that’s been together for a year.

From the sidelines, the girls not playing watch in amazement at the plays that your team’s done. Sakura’s managed to fit in several setter dumps, you’ve managed to do some powerful straights and crosses, Reo’s blocks seem firm and hard, while Hikari does well with read blocking.

 _They’re amazing_ , the team thinks to themselves as they watch your team congratulate one another on their amazing tactics.

“We did it!” You cheer.

“I can’t believe it!” Hikari shouts from next to you. “I thought we weren’t going to sync up and that we’d lose since we’ve never played with each other before…”

“But it was the total opposite!” Reo finishes for Hikari.

“You guys are so good!” Sakura compliments.

“So are you, Saku-chan! Your sets were amazing!” You compliment her, telling the truth. The ball felt like it was perfectly set for you during the game, despite some hiccups. But that’s normal since this is the first time you’ve ever played together.

Both teams line up at the net and bow at one another, thanking the opposing team for a good game. Afterwards, the other team gushes about how well your team did. You’re flushing red the entire time as you compliment them as well.

Soon Michimiya announces, “water break! Good work, girls.”

Most girls split up for the court and head towards where they’ve placed their bags to search for their water bottles. You do so too, grabbing your water bottle you’ve placed on the ground earlier. You bring it to your lips, expecting to take a big gulp of cool, refreshing water. But your parched throat meets nothing. To your horror, you’re out of water.

“Do you know where the water fountain is, Michi-chan? I’m out of water,” you ask her after tapping her shoulder. She’s the closest person to you to ask for directions, as she’s standing on your left, drinking her own water. You shake your empty water bottle as if you’re checking if there’s still hidden water in it. There is none.

Michimiya proceeds to give you the directions to the nearest water fountain. You’re lost within the first part of her explanation. You nod along like you know what she’s saying as she continues to explain. In your defence, you were never good with directions. It’s okay though, you’ll figure it out. Hopefully.

When she finishes, Michimiya claps you on the shoulder and sends you off. You walk out of the gym with a confident air around you that reassures Michimiya that you’ll find the foundation with ease. But then the gym door slams behind you and you’re left alone outside, you nearly slump over in defeat, already lost.

 _There is no way I’m finding this damn fountain_.

With dread filling in your body, there’s a new feeling emerging within it. It’s hard to describe, but it feels like something interesting is about to happen. You can only wonder what it’ll be. You shrug it off and straighten your spine, walking down the steps the gym to begin your quest of finding the water fountain.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello!! i'm sorry that this update is really late; i tried to make it up with an extra long chapter this time!
> 
> my grandma's health had been declining a lot this month, so i spent as much time as i could with her. unfortunately, she passed away recently, so i've been taking some time off to spend with my family. 
> 
> i wish i could say that updates will be going back to its regular schedule on wednesdays, but i'm currently approaching exam season in school and i've been super busy with that as well. when school's over, i'll try my best to get updates back on track. so updates will be more sporadic now, sorry about that :((
> 
> thank you for reading and as usual, see you next time!


	8. small world

After walking around Karasuno for what feels like an eternity, you can officially conclude that attempting to find a water fountain at a brand-new school is probably the most excruciating thing you’ve ever done in your entire life.

So that’s why when you do finally see a water fountain seven metres ahead of you, you’re practically sprinting towards it. When you arrive with record-breaking speed, you press on the side of the fountain while holding your water bottle up to where the stream of water is steadily flowing. You watch almost painfully as the cold, refreshing water slowly fills into your water bottle.

When it’s finally full, you gulp down all the water inside like a dehydrated person finding an oasis in a desert. You fill it a second time before deciding to head back to the gym. You’ve been gone a lot longer than you’ve intended to; people might be wondering where you went.

Although it’s a small victory for finding the water fountain, that excitement from the victory is quickly squashed with your next thought: you have absolutely no idea what part of the school you’re in right now. All you know is that you’re outside, the main building is behind you, and there’s a cool looking path that leads into another building.

But besides the cool path, the building doesn’t interest you much. Well, not until you notice a person hanging from the windowsill on the building, peeking inside. You furrow your brows as you try to think of a reasonable rationale as to why the person’s doing so. With thinking, you notice a second person on the ground near the one hanging from the windowsill.

Suddenly, the figure hanging from the windowsill jumps down from it. He engages in conversation with the other person who’s already on the ground, sparking an idea into your mind. You could ask the duo for directions back to the First Gymnasium. You’re able to catch bits and pieces of their conversation as you get closer towards them.

The figure that’s been steadily hanging onto the windowsill suddenly lets go of it and lands onto the ground. He engages in conversation with the taller figure who’s been on the ground the entire time. Brushing aside the thought of the duo being some weird creepers, you advance from your spot and head towards them. As you get closer to them, you manage to overhear more and more of their conversation.

“This time I wanted to train right, for real, and get good and win. That’s why I came to Karasuno. And one day I’m gonna get even better than you!”

You pause in your steps. Your brows furrow again as you’re plunged into deep thought. Haven’t you heard this voice before? And especially those words? They sound awfully familiar, but you can’t seem to put your finger on it.

“But if I’m not allowed to join the team… if I don’t get the chance to practice, then I won’t even be able to get started! If it means I can play volleyball, then I’m willing to put up with some stuff I don’t like! No matter how big a stuck-up, overconfident jerk you are, I’ll do my very best to make sure I don’t have to look at you so much as possible!”

“That’s my line, you dumbass!”

Wait a minute. Doesn’t that voice sound familiar too? What’s going on? You’re certain you’ve heard both voices before, and the way they speak is familiar to you as well. You’re confused. Have you met these people before? Where did you hear them from?

Now fueled by curiosity, you continue walking a little faster after your short pause. When you approach close enough to the duo, your foot accidentally slams against a rock lying on the path. The rock goes flying and lands behind the bickering duo, their backs facing you. _Well, shit._

The two of them freeze mid-argument and you see they’ve tilted their heads towards one another as if they’re silently asking if the other heard the noise too. When the duo both make eye contact, they gulp in unison.

Nearly jumping in fright after a terrifying glare that screams ‘you look first or else’ from his taller counterpart, the shorter person isn’t sure what to be afraid of more now. He stiffens and gulps once again before he wills himself to turn and slowly cranes his neck over his shoulder. The taller person follows the shorter’s movements seconds after.

The duo slowly turns around to face you. When they’re half-way turned, you don’t need to see any more of them to figure out who they are. Your water bottle slips from your slackened grip on it as your jaw drops. The water you’ve worked so hard to find spills onto the ground from the impact of the fall, staining the ground into a darker brown colour. You hardly notice this, though, as you’re shocked at the duo that’s now fully facing you. When they recognize you, a series of shocked exclamations and questions arise.

“Tobio-chan? Hinata-kun?”

“Y/N-san?!”

“Oikawa-san?!”

“What are you doing at Karasuno?!”

“I should be asking you that!”

“You guys know each other?!”

“How do _you_ guys know each other?!”

“How do we all know each other?!”

You point an accusatory finger at Kageyama. “You’re supposed to be at Shiratorizawa!”

The atmosphere drops a couple of degrees as Kageyama grimaces. A look of anger crosses his face at the mention of said school. He points a finger back at you. “And you’re supposed to be at Aoba Johsai!”

Kageyama’s look of anger transfers over onto your face as well. Your eye twitches at the school you  _did_ want to go to, but couldn’t. Both of you are thoroughly confused at each other’s presence. Kageyama was one hundred—no, one _thousand_ percent sure you were headed to Aoba Johsai, where Tooru and Hajime are. You thought that Shiratorizawa had accepted him. Basking in each other’s presence, you momentarily forget the third person here.

Hinata stands beside Kageyama, frightened at the interaction between the two of you. He looks feverishly at the both of you, trying to think of a way to sort this out peacefully. Hinata wonders why he’s seemingly always near taller people? Are they always this scary? Is this the fate he’s resigned to?

“I got rejected,” Kageyama grumbles. He crosses his arms over his chest and huffs.

“W-what?” you stumble over your own words out of disbelief. The shock is evident on your face. It only makes Kageyama more irritated. Frankly, he himself is  _still_ shocked he got rejected.

 _It doesn’t make sense why Shiratorizawa would reject a player like Kageyama. Even if they did, he definitely would have gotten an offer for Aoba Johsai. So why is he at Karasuno? Unless he himself rejected the offer from Seijoh_. You ‘ahh’ in your mind when you reason why Kageyama most likely rejected Seijoh. There’s no way in hell he’d go there as long as Tooru, Kindaichi and Kunimi are there. Karasuno must have been one of his only options left.

“You heard me,” Kageyama replies with an edge in his voice telling you that he’s not repeating it again. With the conversation appearing to be finished, Hinata decides to intervene before the two of you can further increase the tension in the air. After all, as soon as Hinata’s seen you, he’s been dying to catch up with the girl that was so kind and encouraging towards him after his loss against her own school. He was just distracted by you and Kageyama’s conversation. Yeah, that’s it. Not like he was scared or anything.

“Ace! Oikawa-san!” Hinata shouts for your attention. You laugh lightly at how excited he sounds. It somewhat reminds you of a puppy needing attention from its owner. The tension lifts from the atmosphere slightly. “I’m not an ace anymore, Hinata-kun. You don’t need to call me that.”

“Still, you were an ace! That’s so cool!!” Hinata exclaims. He’s so full of energy despite it nearing the evening time—you wonder how that’s possible to have endless energy. Although it would explain his insane stamina and jumping power you saw during the Kitagawa-Yukigaoka game. “What are you doing at Karasuno? Were you inspired by the Little Giant too? Or did I convince you? You never told me what high school you were going to attend, after all!”

“Well, uh, not really…” _I never told you what high school I was going to attend because I didn’t know either_. You frown as you formulate your next sentence in your mind. If Kageyama can admit that he was rejected from Shiratorizawa, you could do this too. “I didn’t receive any sports scholarships, so Karasuno was my only choice.”

“What?” it’s Kageyama’s turn to be shocked at how you’ve also ended up at Karasuno. He knows that you were the ace at Kitagawa—“courtesy of years of hard work and brutal practices with Hajime,” you would tell him with pride—and a well-rounded player that was pivotal to the team’s dynamic. He’s seen you play multiple times too; you definitely weren’t lacking in any way. So if you’re that good, how were you not scouted? “How is that even possible? Are the scouts blind or something?”

You drop your gaze to the floor, finally saying the words you wanted to tell Kageyama before his match against Yukigaoka. “I was injured before the Junior High Athletics Meet. I didn’t get to play because of it, so I couldn’t be scouted.”

“You were injured?” Kageyama’s eyebrows knit together in confusion, although you don’t see it. He tries to remember if you’ve ever mentioned anything about an injury to him before, but with his memories clogged with volleyball and volleyball only, he finds nothing.

“What, you didn’t know that? Even I knew!” Hinata replies. “She told me and didn’t tell you, loser!”

“What was that, you dolt?”

You quickly intervene between the two idiots before another mini-argument has a chance to break out between them. “I didn’t get the chance to tell you, Tobio-chan. You kinda walked off before I could, haha…” _Idiot, that doesn’t help_!

“That doesn’t explain how Hinata knew and I didn’t.”

“S-she came to see me after our game against each other! Oikawa-san’s really nice, she said that my team did well and how we tried our best! You should learn from her,” Hinata gulps when Kageyama glares at him.

“We ended up talking for a bit after that. Hinata-kun mentioned how it was his first and last game in junior high, and I mentioned that I couldn’t even play my last games to make him feel better,” you finish for the frightened Hinata.

Kageyama shifts his gaze onto your legs. “Your knee?” he asks, staring at them with an intensity that reminds you of your physiotherapist when he first examined your knees. You resist a laugh.

“If you stare any harder it’ll hurt your pea-sized brain,” you tease, satisfied when Kageyama looks at you with an irked expression. “It’s fine now, though. I got cleared to play again two weeks ago.”

“What did you do to it, Oikawa-san?” Hinata asks innocently. He’s curious about it now; he remembers that you didn’t mention how you’ve gotten your injury.

“You practiced too much?” Kageyama guesses. He was aware of the extra practices you did at Kitagawa Daiichi. After all, he’s the one who discouraged you from doing so in the first place. Don’t get him wrong, Kageyama’s all about volleyball and improving, but at the rate you were practicing back in junior high, you were bound to get hurt. Kageyama was sure of it then, and unfortunately, he was right.

You nod reluctantly, “Too many jump serves. You can say ‘I told you so’ if it makes you feel better,” you mumble, bracing yourselves for Kageyama’s next sentence.

“I told you so,” Kageyama deadpans with no hints of mercy. You cringe at the harshness of his tone. It somewhat reminds you of Hajime during your recovery time. He called you Stupidkawa every other sentence and constantly grilled you for being stupid and overworking yourself. Now that you think of it, he also said ‘I told you so’ a couple of days after you told him and Tooru about your knee, although you didn’t prompt him to that time. You nearly sigh out loud thinking of your blunt but caring friend. You like to think of it as a form of endearment from Hajime.

Feeling a little left out of the conversation and also a bit confused, Hinata asks how you and Kageyama know each other. To him, it seems like you’re both very familiar with one another. But how? Who would  _willingly_ get close to Kageyama, the scary tall setter with the title of ‘King’?

“We were in the same class,” you answer honestly. “I overheard Kageyama talking about volleyball one day and since I was—and still am—into volleyball, so I butted myself into the conversation. We pretty much drifted together from then, since volleyball is our passion. What about you guys?”

With a prompt to continue the conversation, Hinata and Kageyama both darken visibly. They begin to explain what’s happened in the past hour: Hinata running into Kageyama in the gym, the challenge of receiving one of Kageyama’s jump serves (you note that for later; Kageyama didn’t have a jump serve in middle school), the toupée of the vice-principal going astray onto the captain’s head, getting kicked out of the club by the captain until they can work together, having the find a solution to get along with each other, to now, meeting you again.

It takes a while for the two boys to be able to explain the full story, as one would start explaining and the other would interrupt to clarify any points, making the former mad. Then a fight would almost break out between the two, but thankfully you’re there to get them back on track.

“Woah,” you breathe out when the duo finished their story. “So you’re telling me that the vice-principal’s toupée was fake after all?”

“That’s all you got from the explanation?” Kageyama says, not impressed.

“Aside from the fact that you’re both idiots, yeah,” you retort smugly, smirking when Kageyama gets visibly ticked off from your comment.

“If you’re so smart, then how’d you get all the way here? I heard the other gym is on the other side of the school,” Kageyama bites back.

An irk mark nearly appears on your forehead. “Well, unlike you, I was in practice—not kicked out—and I had to refill my water bottle since it was empty. I just happened to get lost along the way.” remembering that you dropped it for a while now, you bend down and pick it up. “Although I think it’s broken now.”

It’s Hinata’s turn to play mediator between you and Kageyama as the air around you drops a couple of degrees. Is this normal between the two of you? Is your guys’ friendship a healthy one? “Okay, okay! Let’s just think of some solutions to our problem right now instead!”

You and Kageyama turn and look at Hinata with a stare. He notices that you’re both taller than him, to which is visibly gulps. It feels like you and Kageyama are practically looming over him with death stares. Although you’re only taller than Hinata by an inch, it feels like you’re about the same height as Kageyama right now. Maybe you made up for the difference by being so _intimidating_. He finds it strange how you can be both kind and intimidating at the same time.

“I was thinking of a 2-on-2 match between us and two of the club members. If we win, we get to rejoin the club because it proves that Hinata and I can work together,” Kageyama says.

“And if you lose?” you ask.

Kageyama frowns, “We won’t.”

“Well if you say so,” you blink, “Although I don’t think you can handle Hinata on your own.”

Hinata lets out a noise of surprise, “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“I mean, I don’t think you guys can be in the same room for more than five minutes before ripping each other’s throats out,” you reply, a plan formulating in your mind. The idea creates a grin on your face. Kageyama notices your expression and immediately realizes that you’ve come up with something.

“So that’s why I’ll be the amazing mediator between you two!” you point at yourself with your thumb boastfully. “Plus, I can help you guys get ready for the game if the captain accepts your idea.”

“Wooooa! Practicing with and learning from an ace?!” Hinata exclaims, stars visible in his eyes. “You’ll really help us, Oikawa-san?”

“Of course! Anything for you and Tobio-chan,” you wink. It’s not a complete lie; you’ll be getting some extra practice in if you help Hinata and Kageyama. It will hopefully give you some time to brush up on some skills that might’ve gotten rusty during your time off the court. “Now, go ask your captain!”

“Okay, you idiot, listen up,” Kageyama turns and speaks to Hinata. “We’re going to call for the captain and challenge him to a game in unison because it shows that we’re in sync with one another. Got it?”

Hinata nods before turning to you with an innocent yet confident look in his eyes. “Are you going to stay, Oikawa-san?”

“Huh? Oh sure, if you want me to. I can offer moral support?” you laugh, unsure of your presence can offer. You place your hands on either boys’ shoulders and shove them forwards to face the door. They’re standing shoulder-to-shoulder, while you’re in the middle of them but further back. You’re practically hidden between Kageyama’s larger figure and broad shoulders, but you’re still a tiny bit visible over Hinata.

“Now go for it. I’m sure your captain will accept.”

The two boys look at each other, nod, and with a large intake of air, both expel it with a loud, “Captain!”

Your eyes widen in alarm at the sheer volume of the boys’ combined shout. But you’re not the only surprised, as you hear two alarmed shouts come from the inside of the gym. You hear footsteps coming towards the most likely locked door. A head pokes out from inside of the gym.

“Huh? You two? Have you been standing outside all practice?” says a boy with a buzz cut. When your eyes lay upon his figure, your eyebrows furrow. He seems awfully familiar. You shake it off, maybe you’ve just seen someone who looks like him before. Besides that, it doesn’t seem like he’s noticed you yet. You can’t tell if that’s a good or bad thing.

Kageyama and Hinata turn towards each other, seemingly sending a series of nonverbal messages of ‘don’t mess this up’ to one another. When they finish, they turn back to face the buzz cut boy.

“We challenge you to a game!” Kageyama shouts first.

“The two of us versus to two of you!” adds Hinata.

That’s when you notice a silver-haired boy standing behind the one the bald one. Your eyebrows knit together; he looks familiar as well. This couldn’t just be a random coincidence, right? You swear you’ve seen them somewhere before… but where?

“We’ll prove that we can play together on the same team!” Kageyama and Hinata shout in unison. From where you’re standing, you can’t see their faces, but you’re willing to bet that there’s a look of determination of them.

The bald boy laughs at the duo’s antics while the silver-haired boy says that he heard a ‘one, two’ being counted before they shouted together. You resist a laugh yourself as you recall that Kageyama and Hinata did count together to synchronize their last statement.

“And if you lose?” a third person approaches with his arms crossed against his chest. He stops walking when he reaches the door, choosing to stand in between the bald and silver-haired boy. Like the latter two, he looks familiar as well. Now, you’re completely certain that this isn’t a mere coincidence. With one recognized person, maybe, but two, and now three? You’ve definitely seen these people somewhere before. The fact that you can’t remember where or when irritates you.

Now in the presence of the third person, Hinata’s shoulders tense up. Kageyama, however, remains still where he’s standing, “I will accept whatever punishment you deem fit.”

“Really?” the brunette raises a brow. He pauses for a moment, appearing to be deep in thought. “Actually, this is perfect. Besides the two of you, we have a few other first years slated to join up. Let’s have you play them 3-on-3.”

 _That’s great_! _Assuming that the brunette is the captain, he just accepted the idiot duo’s proposition_! you think. The captain decides that the third person in Kageyama and Hinata’s team will be Tanaka, the boy with the buzz cut. Tanaka exclaims out of shock and protests, but the captain eventually coaxes him to do it.

“In the event that your team loses,” the captain says after his successful persuasion, “as long as we third-years are still around, Kageyama will be forbidden from playing setter. That’s with our advisor’s permission, of course.”

“What?” Kageyama and you exclaim. While Kageyama’s voice rises, yours remain as a quiet murmur. You go unheard by anyone else. _The terms are completely unfair. It doesn’t make any sense_! _They haven’t even seen Kageyama play yet_! _I know his style has changed a lot, but high school is a whole new turf and he’ll adapt—oh, that’s the captain’s plan. Damn, this guy’s a genius_!

“It’s not meant as a simple punishment,” continues the captain, “with a diva as an on-court leader, someone who tries to do it all and fails, the whole team will lose games they would otherwise win. But don’t worry, it’s not like we’re kicking you out… you can play any other position on the court with your talent.”

You grimace at the captain’s harsh words. Was it really necessary to say such things to Kageyama? If you were in Kageyama’s position and had those words said to your face, you couldn’t imagine how’d you feel about yourself.

Then again, this is Kageyama: volleyball stricken idiot with crazy talent. If anything, this would motivate him to work harder with Hinata and now Tanaka on their makeshift team. Based on what you’ve seen from the two first-years, combining Hinata’s speed and jump height with Kageyama’s sharp setting would create a strong offensive. You’re not sure about Tanaka’s skill set since you’ve never seen him play, but you’re sure that adding him to the Kageyama-Hinata team could possibly give them an edge against the other first-years. Although to get that advantage, the duo really needs to learn how to get along.

Once again, the captain’s a genius for thinking this far in advance.

“I am a _setter_!” yells Kageyama.

“Then I guess you better win as a team. You proposed this game because you thought you’d win it by yourself, didn’t you?” the captain asks. By the way Kageyama’s shoulders tense slightly, it gives you his answer, despite him not saying it aloud. The captain’s hit the head on the nail, “The game will be Saturday morning.”

“Good,” Hinata and Kageyama say in unison. The captain nods and is about to shut the door, but is stopped by Tanaka when he points at you, causing your heart to nearly skip a beat. Aside from looking familiar, he also looks absolutely terrifying. What did he want with you?

“Are you our new manager?! Kiyoko-san will be glad to meet you, and hopefully, she’ll smile when she does… oh, what I’d do to get blessed by Kiyoko-san’s heavenly smile!” he exclaims.

By the time you’ve gathered your words and are about to tell him that you’re actually a member of the girls’ club, Tanaka’s already pulled you into the gym. Out of confusion, the captain loses his grip on the gymnasium door. It closes by itself with a loud bang, leaving Kageyama and Hinata outside. You squint when you look into the gym, eyes still adjusting to the sudden shift in lighting.

“Look at who we have here!” Tanaka yells into the gym, attracting the attention of three other boys in the gym. “It’s our new beautiful manager!”

Tanaka then runs off to the three boys further down in the gym, boasting about the ‘new beautiful manager’ and how pleased Kiyoko-san would be when she finds out that she’ll have a successor. With Tanaka’s departure, it leaves you alone with the captain and the silver-haired boy. You blink rapidly, trying to process what in the world’s just happened in the last minute.

You turn to the two behind you and try to begin your explanation. “Sorry to disappoint, but I’m not actually your new manager.”

The captain sighs, uncrossing his arms to pinch the bridge of his nose. “I thought so. I’m sorry about Tanaka; he gets a little wild when he sees a female besides our third-year manager around.”

“Shimizu Kiyoko?” you guess. The captain nods, raising an eyebrow in question. You explain before he can ask about it, “I ran into her earlier today. I was trying to find the sign-ups for the girls’ volleyball club and she was wearing a tracksuit with ‘Karasuno High Volleyball Club’ stitched on it so I asked her for directions.”

“Oh!” the silver-haired boy speaks up. “You play volleyball?”

“I thought it was evident with the kneepads,” you joke, lifting your legs up one by one and pointing at your knee pads. You laugh when the silver-haired boy’s face reddens in embarrassment.

“By any chance, did you go to Kitagawa Daiichi?” the boy asks. You’re taken aback. How did he know that you went to Kitagawa Daiichi?

“Yes, I did?” you reply, although it comes out in a cautious and confused tone.

“And you went to the Junior High Athletics Meet?”

You nod.

“Ah! I thought I recognized you! You were watching the Kitagawa-Yukigaoka game, weren’t you? We were there too; we were also at a tournament and we decided to check out the junior high teams. We spoke during that game, and also after your Shiratorizawa game!”

You ‘ahh’ in realization. No wonder why they looked so familiar; you actually have met them before. “I remember! Thank you again for after the game…” you trail off when you realize that you haven’t exchanged names with the two boys.

“I’m Sugawara Koushi, but Suga’s just fine. I’m the vice-captain of the club,” the silver-haired boy smiles at you, making you smile back in return. You suddenly feel refreshed.

As the four boys at the other end of the gym somehow hear introductions beginning, they approach you and the captains. When they’re close enough, they greet you as their new manager and introduce themselves. One mentions that he’s delighted to work with you this year. You look over at the captains for help. Sugawara tilts his head downwards into a slight nod and smiles again.

“Actually…” you start, a guilty look crossing your face. “I’m not your new manager; I’m actually in the girls’ club. Sorry about that, it seems like you guys really want a second manager.”

They look saddened for a few seconds, making you feel worse. However, they overcome it quickly (minus Tanaka, who’s still moping) and still welcome you kindly.

Seeing that everything’s been cleared, the captain is the last to introduce himself. “I’m Sawamura Daichi, although I’d rather be called Daichi. I’m sure you’ve figured this out by now, but I’m the captain of the club.” Daichi smiles.

“I’m Oikawa Y/N,” you grin. “It’s a pleasure to meet you all, although I apologize for interrupting your practice.”

“Don’t worry about it, Oikawa-chan,” Daichi replies, “If anything, it should be Tanaka apologize for pulling you in here so suddenly.”

“Right! I am terribly sorry for scaring you like that, Oikawa-chan!” Tanaka exclaims, bowing down. Your eyes widen at Tanaka’s actions. An upperclassman bowing down at _you_?

“Y-you don’t need to do that, Tanaka-san!”

“Alright, alright,” Daichi interrupts. “I think that’ll be enough for now. Let’s get back to practice, okay?”

The other three first-years head off back onto the court to practice, while Tanaka, Sugawara and Daichi remain with you. You’re about to announce your departure, but Sugawara beats you to speaking first.

“Oikawa-san, do you mind me asking why you were with Hinata and Kageyama earlier?”

“Oh!” you quickly remember the two boys who are most likely still outside. You’ve forgotten them for a second since you’ve been dragged into the gym by Tanaka. “I know Hinata from the Junior High Athletics Meet. After his loss against my school, I went to say a couple of words to him and his team. We ended up talking for a while, but I haven’t seen him since until today. Tobio-chan is a bit of a different story. I know him from Kitagawa; we were in the same classes throughout the years and we’d play volleyball together sometimes. We kind of drifted apart since then… it was mostly me that pulled myself away from him—”

“You don’t have to continue if you don’t want to,” Daichi interrupts before you can give everyone the reason why you drifted away from Kageyama.

“Oh, I don’t mind. It’s not that big of a deal anyway,” you continue. You think providing some information about Kageyama’s background might help Daichi to understand his character a little more. Hopefully, he won’t be as harsh to him.

“I just drifted from him because of the ‘King of the Court’ thing. It kind of transferred over to his personality off the court as well, and I couldn’t really handle it anymore, so I distanced myself. I talked to him before his game against Yukigaoka, but we didn’t get to talk much before he had to go. We didn’t talk afterwards, so that was one of the last times I got to talk to him. Or so I thought since I believed that we were going to go to different high schools. But here we are. I didn’t expect to see him here either, nor Hinata, nor you guys. I guess this is really a small world,” you laugh.

“Seems like it is, Oikawa-san,” Daichi replies. “Thank you for sharing that with us despite this being the first time we’ve formally talked.”

You nod, “It’s no problem.”

“Speaking of Hinata and Kageyama, is there any reason why you’re being incredibly harsh on them?” Sugawara asks.

“Yeah, you’ve been a lot stricter than usual,” Tanaka adds on.

Daichi raises an eyebrow. He begins to explain his reasoning for his harshness, “For just a middle school kid, Kageyama had eye-opening skill and talent… we’ve seen it first-hand during the Yukigaoka match. But he left no lasting records or achievements despite his talents, most likely because of his diva attitude. If he keeps it up with that attitude and his high school career will go exactly the same way as his middle school one did. But unlike middle school, on this team—”

—he has Hinata.

With Daichi’s explanation, your earlier hypothesis is confirmed. You cheer in triumph in your head; it seems like you’ve been getting better at analyzing people and their choices quickly. Hopefully, you’ll be able to do it just as well on the court. Pinpointing the opposite team’s weaknesses is something you’ve always done with amazing accuracy, but it never hurt to improve the skill further.

“And you’re saying that he has Hinata? The kid’s an athletic freak, yeah, but he still lacks a lot of basic skills. Plus, you saw the way they were fighting earlier, Daichi-san,” Tanaka says, the look on his face showing that he doesn’t understand what Daichi’s hinting at.

“You’re right; Hinata does lack a lot of basic skills. But he has rare natural speed and reflexes, accompanied by his incredible jumps. In middle school, he wasn’t lucky enough to be on a team with a real setter who could set the ball for him properly.”

“Yeah, I remember that Hinata said he just threw his team together since he was the only member of the boys’ volleyball club until his final year. Three first-years joined the club that year, but he still needed two more players to participate in the tournament so he asked his two friends, who played soccer and basketball respectively, to join just for the tournament. I think it was the basketball player who played a setter during that game.” you add in your two cents into the conversation, trying to add some more context.

“Exactly what I was saying. Hinata had a basketball player setting for him, not an actual setter with experience in setting,” Daichi smiles at you before turning back to face everyone else. “Now there’s Kageyama, who’s a highly skilled setter and was desperate for a fast hitter who could keep up with him.”

You frown, recalling a time where Kageyama had asked to set for you so the both of you could practice and improve on your skills. You agreed without hesitation, as this was something that you both did together regularly. The practice ended up going horribly; Kageyama’s sets had completely changed from before, getting faster and faster with each attempt. You found yourself unable to catch up with the speed of his sets. He demanded you run faster, jump higher with each failed set. He failed to see that you weren’t able to catch up and only worried about his own sets. But how could he improve his sets if it didn’t even reach its hitter? Out of frustration, you left the gym that day in tears, without Kageyama.

Prior to that day, you and Kageyama’s relationship was going up a hill and becoming stronger with each day. But it finally hit its peak, and that day marked the beginning of your descent down the hill; you had begun distancing yourself from him since that day.

“Separate, they’re incomplete,” Daichi’s voice brings you back from your recollection. “But if we can put their talents together and use them in tandem, Karasuno’s strength as a team will skyrocket.”

You look over at Sugawara and Tanaka when Daichi finishes. They look shocked, absorbing the information that their captain had just said. As they process it and understand their captain’s goal, smirks and smiles spread onto their faces. Your face remains neutral for the most part, but you can’t help letting a small smile show.

Daichi turns to you with an inquisitive look. “You don’t seem to be surprised, Oikawa-san?”

You blink. “I guess I saw it coming? It all made sense to me when you proposed the terms for the 3-on-3 match. I understand that captains can be hard on their teams sometimes, but it’s because they want the best for their team. So when you said the conditions, I thought that there had to be a reason behind it; no captain would be this harsh without a reasonable motive. So I put two-and-two together and came up with the explanation you just said earlier.”

Daichi looks impressed, pursing his lips and nodding his head up and down several times. “Well, what an observant person you are. I’m sure it helps a lot when you’re playing in a game.”

You smile. “Yes, it really does.”

Daichi grins, looking at the time of the small clock hanging on the wall nearby. “Well, we’ve got to get back to practice. Sorry again for Tanaka dragging you in like this, but it was a pleasure to formally meet you,” Daichi says. You bow at him.

“I’m gonna stay back for a little bit. I’d like to talk to you, Oikawa-san, if you don’t mind?” Tanaka asks, surprising you.

“Sure,” you reply quickly. Tanaka then looks at his captains, who take off with a nod.

Tanaka then turns to you, swallowing nervously. “I just wanted to really apologize for my actions earlier! I didn’t mean to drag you in like that, I must’ve scared you! I just thought you were our new manager since Kiyoko-san is in her third-year and we don’t have a successor!” he then bows down ninety degrees at you once again.

Your jaw drops open in shock. Tanaka’s bowing down at you _again_? “Tanaka-san, there’s no need to bow again! I already said that it was okay!”

Tanaka comes up from his bow with record-breaking speed, wiping a fake (or is it real?) tear out of his eyes. “You’re too kind, Oikawa-san! Please, call me Ryuu!”

You tilt your head. “Alright, Ryuu-san.”

Tanaka clutches his heart as if he’s been shot. “Y/N-chan, you’re so cute!”

You blink harshly. _What in the world is going on_? Before you or Tanaka could say anything else, you hear a voice by the window you’re both standing near.

“Okay! Between now and Saturday, we’re going to fix your sucky receiving skills!”

“Sucky?! Besides, we can’t even use the gym. Where are we supposed to go?”

Tanaka looks like an idea has just struck him. He starts fake coughing, to which you raise an eyebrow at. What’s he planning on doing now?

“Hey, Suga-san!” Tanaka yells loud enough so Kageyama and Hinata, who are outside can hear them. Your lips form an ‘o’, realizing the reason behind Tanaka’s actions. “Tomorrow’s morning practice starts at 7am like always, right?”

“Yes it does,” Sugawara replies loudly from the other side of the gym. “Why?”

“No reason! Say, did the VP’s toupée survive that hit?” Tanaka blurts out an excuse quickly.

“Don’t bring that up please!” Sugawara cries.

You stifle a laugh. Oh, how you wish that you were present when that happened. Then again, if you were there, you don’t think you’d be able to hold in your laughter.

Tanaka then looks out the window, awaiting a reply from the duo outside.

“Tomorrow at 5am! Don’t be late!”

“You don’t be late!”

You hear footsteps afterwards and guess that Kageyama and Hinata have just left from the outside of the gym. You and Tanaka then turn towards each other. You look at each other with a face that says ‘see you 5am tomorrow’. When Tanaka nods, you smile and part from your upperclassman. Before you leave the Second Gymnasium, you say your goodbyes to the members of the boys’ volleyball club. Something tells you that you’ll be seeing them a lot of often now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hello hello! 
> 
> this is long overdue once again, i apologize for that! the good news is that my summatives are (mostly) all over, and exams start this week. once that's over, i can write more often and chapters will come out quicker!
> 
> as always, thanks for reading :)


	9. the super secret 5am practice

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> this chapter's pretty dialogue heavy, but it's a nice break from long paragraphs!!

“Oh, there you are! You were gone for so long I was starting to get worried,” Michimiya cries upon your reappearance in the First Gymnasium. She’s by your side in an instant, grabbing your forearms. She examines you from head-to-toe to see if you’re alright.

“I’m alright, Michi-chan,” you laugh at your captain’s antics. You just got lost, not kidnapped. From behind Michimiya, you notice Hikari coming over as well. “I just got lost and it took me a while to find my way back. Who knew that Karasuno was such a big school?”

“I think you’re just bad with directions,” Hikari deadpans. Her presence shocks Michimiya, who lets go of your forearms from the surprise. Hikari mutters an apology, to which Michimiya says that she shouldn’t be, as she didn’t see her coming.

“I am not bad with directions! The school’s just really big!” you defend yourself.

“Were my directions that bad? I didn’t mean for you to get lost!” Michimiya cries once again. She looks at you, her expression bearing nothing but guilt.

“Oh no! It wasn’t that, really! I’m just terrible with directions and I wasn’t really paying attention when you told me them. There’s nothing wrong with your directions, Michi-chan!”

“See?” whispers Hikari under her breath. “You are bad with directions.”

You make a face at Hikari that screams ‘I heard that’. Seeing your expression, the girl has the audacity to laugh. You swear that you’ll get her back, one day. Although you feel that friendly banter will become a common occurrence between the two of you.

“Well, at least you found your way back. That’s all the matters, Y/N-chan,” Michimiya grins, relieving her expression of her guilt. “Although I hate to tell you that practice is over now.”

Your jaw drops. “Are you joking? I barely did anything!” 

“That’s what you get for getting lost,” Hikari mutters. You’re about to agree with Hikari, but then you remember that you reunited with many people in result of getting lost. Although you realize that even if you didn’t run into them today, you were bound to anyway since you all go to the same school. Seeing them earlier is just an added benefit. 

While you’re lost in your thoughts, you don’t notice how Michimiya calls the rest of the girls over to where you’re standing. She announces the end of today’s practice and the schedule for future ones.

“We share this gym with the basketball club, so our practice schedule is a bit different from the boys’ club, per se, as they have the Second Gymnasium to themselves. So we have practices from Monday to Friday with alternating time periods. So since today is Monday and we had practice in the afternoon, tomorrow’s practice will be held in the morning.”

With the mention of morning practice, your soul practically leaves your body. You’re already going to Kageyama, Hinata and Tanaka’s practice at 5am, and now you have your own club’s morning practice? Are the gods trying to kill you?

“What time is morning practice?” Sakura asks. Michimiya replies and says it’s at 7am. Your jaw drops even lower than the first time. You swear your soul has actually left your body this time. You have no clue as to how you’re going to survive tomorrow. Let’s not even add classes into the equation. 

“Does anyone have any more questions?” Michimiya asks. 

Hikari clears her throat before speaking, “So to clarify, tomorrow’s practice is in the morning and Wednesday’s will be in the afternoon?”

Michimiya nods, “Yes, that’s correct. Afternoon practices are always right after classes end; try to arrive at the gym as soon as possible. Morning practices always begin at 7am.”

With a thank you from Hikari, Michimiya looks around to make sure no one else has any further questions. “Alright! Since there are no more questions, that’ll be the end of today’s—”

Before Michimiya has the chance to finish her sentence, the gym door suddenly opens and a familiar brunette’s head pops in. “Yahoo! Y/N-chan, are you in here?” 

For the third time since you’ve gotten back into the gym, your jaw drops. You feel like your jaw is going to unhinge one day because of how many times to drops. Not to mention, your jaw has dropped even further than the first two times. 

“Are you actually kidding me right now?” you find yourself saying before you can stop yourself. From the gymnasium door, Tooru steps in after hearing your irritated huff. 

“Took me a while to find you, Y/N-chan! I was starting to die walking around your school. I thought it would be smaller than it is, but turns out that I was completely wrong.” Tooru winks at you. You gag, grabbing the nearest volleyball and throwing it at your idiotic brother. Fortunately for you, it makes complete contact with his forehead. 

“Gaah! Y/N-chan, that’s not how a little sister should treat her older brother!” he cries out in pain. His hand comes up to rub his forehead in an attempt to soothe himself from the pain.

Your nose wrinkles in distaste. Bending down and picking up another volleyball, you chuck it at Tooru once again. He cries out when the volleyball smacks him in the same spot as earlier. Your fellow club members look at you in shock and bewilderment at the scene before them. 

“Y/N-chan, you’re related to Oikawa-senpai?” Hikari whispers beside you. 

Oikawa- _senpai_?!

Before you realize it, Tooru’s walked over and thrown his arm across your shoulder. He pulls you against his shoulder, throwing up a peace sign with his free hand and closes one eye while sticking his tongue out. Your brother likes to call this move the ‘lady charmer’, while you and Hajime beg to differ. Most of the time Tooru pulls this terrible move, Hajime roasts him like he’s beef, but unfortunately he’s not with Tooru today. What a shame. Oh, what’d you give to see Hajime roast Tooru in front of the entire girls’ club.

“Yes, this is my little sister! Y/N-chan’s two years younger than me, so as her older brother, I’m obligated to pick her up from practice! Imagine my baby sister walking home alone at night,” Tooru coos while pinching your cheeks. 

You slap his hands away, “Stop that! I’m not six anymore.” 

“Don’t be embarrassed,” Tooru grins with an evil expression on his face that you manage to catch for a split second. You swear you’re going to drop kick him later. 

“Alright, let’s take off now,” Tooru turns to Michimiya, “I’m assuming you’re the captain?” 

Michimiya blushes, “That’s me.” 

 _Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me_. You look around at your other club members. Some seem to be smitten by your brother, while some don’t.

“Do I have permission to take Y/N-chan home? It seemed like you girls were done practicing for today when I came in,” inquires Tooru. 

Michimiya nods and flushes even darker, “O-of course! We were just wrapping up anyway. We’ll see you tomorrow morning, Y/N-chan!”

“Right, bye girls.” you wave to your fellow club members. They say their goodbyes. When you finish, Tooru leads you out of the gym with his arm while over your shoulders. As soon as you’re out of earshot and far away enough from the gym, you whack your idiotic brother on the head. 

“That’s what you get,” you say with a smug expression on your face after hearing his cry of pain. 

“What?!” Tooru nurses his head, “I didn’t even do anything! I’m going to get a concussion at this rate!”

“Right, speaking of injuries,” you narrow your eyes at Tooru, “aren’t you supposed to be at home right now? The doctor hasn’t cleared your ankle yet, so you really shouldn’t—”

“Aww, Y/N, I didn’t know you worried this much about me! I got cleared earlier today, so I’m going back to practice tomorrow. Mom wanted to pick you up herself, but she got called into work last minute, so she asked me to come.” Tooru wraps his arm around your shoulders lovingly again. This time, you don’t shove his arm off.

“But don’t you have practice? Even with an injury, you shouldn’t be slacking off,” you chime.

A flash of mock hurt crosses Tooru’s face. “Slacking off?! Who do you think I am?” he scoffs, squeezing your shoulders hard with his arm for just a second. “It’s Monday, if you haven’t realized, smart one. But even if I did have practice, I’d still come and pick you up.”

“Ew, you’re so cheesy.”

“Pft, you love me, don’t deny it. Just because you said that it’s now my weekly mission to come pick you up from Monday practices.” 

Your face scrunches up at your brother’s declaration, “You’re kidding, right?”

“Not at all. Who else do you expect to come? Iwa-chan?”

“I’d prefer him instead of you.”

Tooru snorts, “You’re obviously joking. We both know I’m your favourite out of the two of us. And the better-looking one. And the better volleyball player.”

You smirk. This is a perfect way to get back at your brother for his earlier display of affection. Since they were kids, Tooru and Hajime have been fighting about who the better volleyball player is. They’ve grown out of the actual rivalry (more like Tooru did; Iwaizumi never really cared. He just found it amusing. Well, somewhat), but it is still something both boys liked to compete against each other for just for bragging rights. Although, at the end of the day, they both know that the positions they play on the court are very different and require lots of training for. 

But still, you’re totally using this against your brother. Seeing the expression on your face, his eyes widen and he drops the arm around your shoulders. Tooru’s gut tells him that he should be worried about what you’re plotting. After all, you’re the one who knows him best, besides Hajime.

“I’m telling Hajime,” you say while grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Tooru’s words get stuck in his throat for a moment before crying, “No, don’t do that!” 

“Then you probably should’ve thought through what you were doing earlier. Guess I won’t be seeing you after tomorrow morning.”

“No! Don’t do this to me, Y/N! You know I’m your only brother right?!”

“Sorry? I only have an older sister.”

“Y/N!” 

 

 

At 4:30am the next morning, you’re woken up by the screeching noise of your alarm practically blaring in your ears. Like the hundreds of times you’ve done it before, your hands slam around your bed to locate your phone. Your eyes are still closed, but your ears are practically in pain with the terrible noise of your god-awful alarm blaring in your room. 

When your hand smacks something solid, you slide your phone fully into your grip. You press the on button on your phone to turn off the alarm instead of turning on the screen itself. It’s a life hack you’ve learned over the years of staying up late to finish assignments, not being able to wake up the next morning for school, and constantly pressing the snooze/off button. 

A long groan slips past your lips when you think about what you’ve just done to yourself. You tried to fall asleep earlier than you usually do last night, but Tooru had barged into your room five minutes after you crawled into your bed. With the worst timing ever, he asked you about how your day had gone. The thought of the previous night wakes you up in a fit of annoyance, forcing you to get up and ready for the day.

_“Tooru, leave me alone; I’m trying to sleep,” you place your arm over your eyes as Tooru turns on the lights to your room._

_“Oh, you’re not sleeping anytime soon.” you feel your bed dip down a bit. You remove your arm from over your eyes and you meet the gaze of your older brother. Something tells you he’s not going to leave you alone until he gets what he’s come here for._

_“What do you want?” you groan, throwing an extra pillow at him. Unfortunately for you, he catches it._

_“Would you stop with the throwing?!” Tooru exclaims. When you shake your head, he throws the pillow back at you. You shift your head to the side to dodge the incoming pillow. Tooru lets out a sigh when the pillow misses your head._

_“I just wanted to check up on you, okay? High school’s pretty different from junior high,” Tooru pauses for a moment, “And since mom and dad are pretty busy lately, I figured I’d ask you in place of them.”_

_You’re taken aback, but a smile slowly grows on your face. “And I’m the cheesy one?”_

_You sit up on your bed, leaning back on your headboard to face Tooru. He shifts his body so that he’s facing you as well. Then you update him on how your day went, leaving out some embarrassing details (aka staring at your classmates’ legs). First, you tell him about the vice-principal’s toupée, meeting Hikari, your first impressions of the girls’ club, Saku and Reu, and finally Kageyama and Hinata._

_“Your knee didn’t give you any trouble while you played?” Tooru asks when you mention that you played a small game earlier today._

_You nod. “It didn’t give out or anything like that. I guess you can say I’m as good as new.”_

_“That’s good to hear. Maybe you should listen to me more, Y/N. Perhaps your knee got even better because I made you stay off of it the entire summer break.”_

_“Emphasis on the perhaps, genius.”_

_“Anyway…” Tooru drags the word on, having no comeback for your last reply. He recalls that you mentioned Kageyama and… who was the other person? Hinaga? The other person didn’t matter as much to Tooru as Kageyama did, who’s definitely sparked his interest after you mentioned him. “Kageyama goes to your school?”_

_“Yeah?” you raise an eyebrow, suddenly curious on your brother’s display of interest. You know he doesn’t like Kageyama, so his curiosity regarding the setter makes you think that he’s plotting something. You look at him, seeing Tooru’s narrowed eyes. You suspect it has something to do with Kageyama going to Karasuno._

_“Something of the matter?” you ask him._

_“Just irked that my stupid dictator kouhai is going to the same school as my lovely darling sister,” he coos, distracting you of your suspicions._

_You roll your eyes and throw another pillow at him again. “Just admit you’re just jealous of him already and let’s move on.”_

_Tooru scoffs, “Why would I be jealous of him? He’s a lone wolf on the court, with no pack to support him. When a wolf is cornered by its predators with no backup, it’s as good as dead.”_

_You frown at your brother’s comment. Deep down you know he’s right, but you’d rather not think about it. If Kageyama doesn’t fix his attitude, who knows what’ll happen to his career? You know that in the final game of his junior high career, no one went to spike any balls he would set. You were there that day, in the stands, watching that match. You could feel Kageyama’s desperation and humiliation from where you sat. What if that happened again, but in high school?_

_“You know I’m right, don’t you?” Tooru asks._

_“Yeah. You completely are, I’m not gonna fight you on that,” you say. “But he’s in high school now with a different team than before. Plus, the captain seems like he knows what he’s doing and how to, well I guess, ‘fix’ Kageyama. And I’m positive he’ll change.”_

_“You’re sure putting a lot of faith in him. What if you’re wrong?”_

_“I don’t think I will be. I just feel like this is what’s going to happen.”_

By the time you finish recalling the events of last night, you’re already out the door with your breakfast in hand. You’ve left a note for Tooru saying you went to morning practice in case he’s curious about where you’ve gone when he wakes up. To top it off, you even prepared a small breakfast for him. You’re going for that sister of the year award.

When you turn on your phone to start your music playlist, 4:50am flashes across your phone screen. You figure that you might be a couple of minutes late to the practice depending on how fast you’re walking, but you’re sure no one will mind. As you walk, you notice your breath suspended in the air because of the chilly morning spring air. To keep yourself warm, your bundled up in your f/c light jacket along with your volleyball and school bag slung across your shoulders.

Like it would be at five in the morning, the streets are empty. It provides an almost serene environment; there’s only you walking down the streets, playing your favourite songs, minding your own business. Despite having earbuds in, your music is playing at its lowest volume, leading you to hear your own footsteps. The cool spring air blows gently across your face, almost as if it’s caressing you. Everything at this moment feels like perfection. You can’t help but revel in it. 

The serenity lasts for a couple of minutes more until you near a subway station. A figure emerges from the station. The person coincidentally heads down the same path you’re walking down. What’s even more coincidental is that the person’s also bald and is holding a volleyball and school bag too. Wait a moment, that couldn’t be a coincidence. No one else would be crazy enough to go to practice this early in the morning besides…

“Ryuu-san!” you shout at your senior, trying to get his attention. To your dismay, he doesn’t answer. You quicken your pace to catch up with him. As you get closer to him, you notice that he’s also listening to music. You figure that’s why he didn’t hear you the first time. When you feel like you’re in a close enough range for him to hear you, you shout Tanaka’s name again. This time, he hears you.

He turns around to face you, recognition lighting up in his face when he makes eye contact with you. With an all too pleasant smile for five in the morning, Tanaka greets you with, “Oh, Y/N-chan! Morning.”

You try and match his smile regardless as you reply, “Morning, Ryuu-san.”

“Did you take the train too?” Tanaka asks, the two of you continuing the walk towards the direction of Karasuno. He walks fast, you realize. You’re practically lunging to catch up to the pace he’s unconsciously set for the two of you.

“I walked,” you say, a little out of breath. “I don’t live very far away from Karasuno.”

“Ah, that’s cool. I live twenty minutes by train, but walking would be a bit too long for me, especially while carrying two bags.”

You laugh at Tanaka’s sentence, relating to his pain all too well. You and Tanaka ease into easy conversation afterwards. Time flies as the two of you talk, as you’re at the entrance of the school before you know it. You’re unsure on where to go from there, but luckily you’re with Tanaka, who knows the way. He switches directions, now walking to the left towards the Second Gymnasium. You follow him. 

“How much do you wanna bet that Hinata and Kageyama are already there?” Tanaka grins. 

“Knowing them, they’ve probably been there since 4:30,” you snort.

“True that.”

As you both near the gym, you see two figures who you assume are Hinata and Kageyama. You can catch bits and pieces of their conversation as you get closer to them. They’re talking about how the door is locked and how they could maybe sneak in through the window to get in. You suppress a laugh. They’ve probably more volleyball obsessed than you are, and that’s probably saying something.

From beside you, Tanaka suddenly yawns. “Man, why does 5am have to be so early? It’s still dark out.”

You’re about to reply, but you’re cut off by Hinata turning over to look at you and Tanaka.

“Tanaka-san? Oikawa-san?” he asks, clearly surprised by both of your presence. Kageyama turns over as well and has the same expression as Hinata. You’re starting to think that they’re twins. Well, maybe more like idiotic twins.

Tanaka reaches into his pocket and pulls out a key. He swings the ring the key’s attached to around his finger. “We finish before 7am, got it?”

As Kageyama and Hinata gush over the help received from their senior, you’re secretly moping; 7am is when your morning practice starts. Counting from now, that’d make it four hours of consecutive volleyball. You visibly deflate. Tanaka steps forwards to the door to unlock it, leaving you and the idiotic twins a little bit further behind him. 

“What’re you doing here so early?” Kageyama asks, turning to you with a curious look in his eyes.

“I did say I was gonna help you guys, right? So that’s why I’m here,” you answer. Kageyama hums in response, not completely satisfied with your answer. Knowing you, you’re probably here for your own extra practice as well.

“Wahh! Thanks so much, Oikawa-san!” Hinata exclaims. 

The gym door creaks open when Tanaka gives it a push, attracting the attention of the idiotic twins. They rush forward to the door, each trying to be the first ones into the gym. You walk towards Tanaka and stop at his side.

“This is going to be a long morning, isn’t it?” you sigh.

“Looks like it,” Tanaka sulks.

Eventually, you get fed up with the fighting between the duo and shove yourself in between the two, ultimately becoming the first one to enter the gym. A laughing Tanaka follows from behind you, becoming the second one in. A surprised Kageyama and Hinata sulk in afterwards, but quickly brighten up when they see the gym. 

It’s your second time in this gym, but you can’t help but notice how much bigger it is than the gym your club practices in. As you dump your bags down on the side of the gym wall, you notice that the net is already set up. It’s set up way higher than the height of the net that the girls’ club normally practices with. But when you look at Kageyama and Tanaka’s height, you realize the reason why. You sigh, realizing that it means you have to adjust to the new height of the net. You’ll have to jump higher, run faster, take off earlier; everything you normally do will have to be adjusted. That only makes you sulk, you’ll be so burnt out by the end of today. Scratch that, by the end of both practices. 

“It’s pretty cold right now, so make sure you warm up properly,” announces Tanaka while he closes the gym doors. You all reply with your own confirmations. You unzip your volleyball bag, digging through it to find your volleyball shoes and kneepads. They’re hiding under your layers of extra clothing, you’re sure of it.

“What’s that?” Kageyama asks from beside you. You look over at it, noticing that he’s also set his stuff down. Your eyes look at him and then to his hand, where an outstretched finger is pointing into a particular object in your bag.

“Oh, it’s nothing. Don’t worry about it,” you say. Kageyama shrugs and pulls out his shoes and kneepads. He puts them on and takes off into a small jog around the gym before you can say anything else. You unconsciously let out a sigh when he leaves, taking your knee brace and hiding it in the small zipper compartment inside your bag. You don’t want anyone else asking about it. You’d rather forget about the time you were off from volleyball because of your self-induced injury.

After taking off your jacket, you slide on your own shoes and kneepads and begin your regular warm-up routine. Kageyama and Hinata have finished their own by the time you’re halfway through yours. Your eyebrows furrow at their speed. You started a minute after Kageyama, and you barely even saw Hinata warm up. You come to the realization that they sped up their own routines to be able to begin quicker. By the time they’re rolling out the volleyball cart from the storage room, you’ve only begun jogging around the gym. You look around for Tanaka, who you see is also still warming up.

While you’re jogging, your eyes are trained on Kageyama and Hinata for the majority of the time. You watch them begin to pass the volleyball too one another. As they do so, you pay attention to their forms. Kageyama’s form is as pristine and polished as usual, while Hinata… well, let’s just say he can’t pass the ball back to Kageyama at all. Even if he does, it’s not done well. You grimace. It surely is going to be a long morning. 

 

 

An hour later, you’re sitting in front of the idiotic duo as they continue attempting to pass the ball to each other. For the majority of the hour, you were practicing with Tanaka, working on your own bumps and volleys. But after Kageyama and Hinata started to yell at one another, you both thought you’d be better off as mediators. Which leads you to your current situation, sitting and watching.

From what you’ve seen from when you were running up till now, there hasn’t been much progress between the idiotic duo, as Kageyama would keep yelling at Hinata every time he misses—so pretty much every pass—which would lead to Hinata getting frustrated and messing up even more. You’ve tried giving Hinata some pointers, but they haven’t really been helping him, much to your annoyance. You thought you were good at giving volleyball advice, but Hinata’s proven you wrong.

“Your feet aren’t moving!” Kageyama points out Hinata’s mistake that you’ve also been pointing out for the past hour. “What happened to the lightning-quick reflexes from yesterday? Concentrate!”

On the ground in defeat after the thousandth failed receive, Hinata pulls himself up to his elbows and knees, groaning. “All we’re doing is passing; it’s so boring! We’re running out of time and I wanna spike the ball! I wanna jump!”

“Then jump up and down from where you’re standing!” Kageyama retorts, crossing his arms at his chest.

Sensing another fight about to break out, Tanaka quickly intervenes. “Okay, let me make one thing clear.” Once both boys’ attention is grabbed, Tanaka continues. “Daichi-san is usually a nice person, but when he gets mad, he gets scary.”

“We know,” Kageyama and Hinata reply. You say the same reply in your head, recalling the events of yesterday clearly. Although Daichi was delivering his wrath upon the duo, it was so intense it felt like he was talking to you as well. You hope you’ll never face Daichi’s wrath directly.

“If he gets wind of our secret practices, we’ll be in trouble. _I’ll_ be in trouble,” Tanaka continues. “Not that I’m afraid or anything like that. But right now, only the four of us know about the practices, so let’s keep it that—”

“Aha! I knew you guys were going to do a secret morning practice!” 

All four of you tense, looking over to the owner of the voice. You hold your breath and look at who it is. When you see that it’s Sugawara, you start breathing again. He’s standing at the door, peeking in with a grin while his fingers are hooked on the inside of his volleyball shoes. Surely he wouldn’t have the intention of ratting you guys out, right? Especially if he’s holding his volleyball shoes? 

“Suga-san?!” Tanaka exclaims in complete shock. “How? How’d—”

“You were acting really suspicious yesterday, y’know? Asking obvious questions, volunteering to keep the key when you’re usually the last one to arrive. You wouldn’t be asking it for Oikawa-san, I figured, since she’s apart of the girls’ club. So I put two and two together and figured that you were up to something involving our two first-years. Turns out I was right,” Sugawara replies, the small grin still on his face. “But don’t worry, I won’t rat you out to Daichi, as long as you let me practice with you!”

Tanaka visibly lets out a sigh of relief and releases his earlier tension. “You’re always welcome to join in, Suga-san!”

“Great!” Sugawara shoots Tanaka a thumbs up. 

While Sugawara gets ready and warms up, Kageyama and Hinata begin passing the ball again. You and Tanaka are still watching the duo, hoping that they don’t fight again, especially in front of Sugawara. Unfortunately they do, but surprisingly Sugawara doesn’t get angry like Daichi probably would. He offers to practice with Hinata instead of Kageyama to cool them both off once he’s done warming up. You breathe out, why didn’t you think of that earlier? 

A couple of minutes later, Sugawara and Hinata are now the ones passing the ball to one another. Kageyama and Tanaka have moved to the net, practicing syncing up their setting and spikes in preparation for Saturday’s match. You’re still watching the passers, but when you hear the first slam of the ball against the floor, you’re tempted to go over there yourself. You wait a little longer, waiting for any signs of Hinata improving. It does come gradually, and you thank the gods for it—but it’s probably because of Sugawara’s refreshing and encouraging personality that’s helped contribute to the improvement. After the sixteenth slam of the ball against the gym floor, you excuse yourself over to where Kageyama and Tanaka are.

“Hey, you do mind if I dig some spikes?” you ask as you approach them. As much as you’d like to spike yourself, you’d rather conserve your energy for your own practice later in the morning. You don’t mind not spiking for now anyway; you’ve always been a fan of receiving. To you, it’s the most crucial thing to a game. A game wouldn’t be in play nor exist without a proper receive to initiate the attack.

“Sure!” Tanaka replies. You look over at Kageyama, who nods in approval. You smile at the two of them before ducking under the net to get to the other side. You position yourself in the middle of the court, getting into your ready stance. When you look back at the duo on the other side of the net, they take it that you’re ready and they continue with what they were doing earlier.

As Tanaka throws the ball towards Kageyama, you focus on his form. You look at the direction his body’s facing, the position of his arm, his approach towards the ball. They’re all indications of a cross, you conclude. Following your instincts, you dive down to your left. You hear the sound of Tanaka’s hand slamming against the ball followed by a small stinging sensation in your forearms milliseconds after. You position your hands over your chest as your body falls down to the floor, using your palms to help push yourself forwards to break your dive safely when they touch the floor. You watch with a grin on your face as the ball lands where a setter would be standing. 

“What?!” you hear Tanaka’s surprised exclamation. “How’d you do that?”

You come up onto your feet, absolutely beaming with joy. “Nice spike!” 

“How’d you receive it so easily?!” he shouts. “I only know two other people who can receive my spikes that cleanly!”

From the corner of the gym, Sugawara and Hinata stand with surprise on their expressions, the ball they were using forgotten, rolling on the floor. Curious to hear your answer, they both approach the net to where you’re standing. While you walk over to Tanaka and Kageyama, you hear the latter give Tanaka the answer to his question. “Y/N-san used to play as a libero.”

“But I thought you were a wing spiker? The ace?” Hinata asks. 

“You were an ace too?!” Tanaka exclaims.

You laugh at his reaction. “I played libero from elementary up until the first year of junior high. Back then, I realized that I wanted to not only dig the ball but score points for my team as well. So I made the switch from libero to wing spiker during my second year.”

“Wow! So you got managed to become an ace in two years?” Sugawara asks in astonishment.

You shake your head. “No, I practiced serving and spiking with my brother my friend at home. He’s a setter and my friend’s a spiker, so naturally when we’d play together, I’d be trying to receive my friend’s spikes. I apparently got really good at doing it, so my coach put me as a libero. But don’t get me wrong, I really liked that position as well. Since I already had the practice and experience, switching wasn’t too terribly difficult.”

“It’s true,” Kageyama says when Hinata looks over at him for confirmation, in shock at the newfound information. “She asked me to set for her so she could practice while she was making the switch.” 

“That’s so cool, Oikawa-san!” Hinata says, “You’re so talented!”

“More like I worked really hard for it,” you hum, imaging Tooru’s reaction if he heard that. You resist an eye roll at his undeniable hatred for ‘naturally talented’ people. “So if I can do it, you can do it too, Hinata-kun.”

“Okay!” he turns to Kageyama. “C’mon, let me spike one too!”

Kageyama looks at Hinata with an annoyed expression. Unfortunately, Hinata doesn’t take the hint and continues, “You like being a setter, don’t you? You like setting, right? So why don’t you put one up for me? Please?”

Kageyama’s expression turns dark. The only thought running through your mind is ‘oh no’. You already know how this is going to end, and it’s not going to be pretty. 

“Don’t wanna.” the reply is sharp and firm. There’s no way Hinata’s changing his mind. 

“Why not, you meanie!” Hinata frowns.

“He’s right!” Tanaka exclaims from behind Hinata. You and Sugawara look at each other with a defeated expression on both your faces. 

“A set and an attack only happen after you’ve received the ball properly. Since you can’t even do that right, you have no right to demand a chance to spike. During Saturday’s game, I’m going to set the ball for Tanaka-san as much as possible. You can let him handle the offensive side; you concentrate on staying out of the way and not screwing us over.”

Ouch. You’d hate to be the one on the receiving end of that. But it’s Hinata who is. He’s probably the most cheerful and determined person you know, and you’ve only really known him for two days. You think that says margins about his character.

“If I get my receiving skills up to par, will you set the ball for me?” he asks. You’re right, he won’t be giving up so easily.

“I’ll set the ball for anyone who I think will score points. During the game, I might have no choice but to set it for you a time or two, if Tanaka-san is unable to get to the ball in time. But the way you are now, I don’t think you’re necessary to win at all.”

Could he not be any harsher? Kageyama’s so blunt all the time; it literally hurts you on the inside. Even you can feel the brunt of the statement and it’s not even directed at you. 

“Besides,” Kageyama continues, “receiving skills aren’t something you can get good at overnight.”

“Yeesh, what a jerk!” Tanaka whispers to Sugawara. You overhear, and can’t help but secretly agree. He could be a little less harsh on Hinata. Well, a _lot_ less harsh.

“I don’t see what’s wrong with letting Hinata hit a spike or two,” Sugawara whispers back.

Kageyama turns away from Hinata and begins walking away. “We’re almost out of time. Start cleaning up.” 

You walk towards Hinata and place a comforting hand on his shoulder. “Don’t worry, Hinata-kun. We can work on receiving together, and I can give you some tips. Plus the game is four days away; you have time to get better.” 

Hinata nods, hunched over in defeat. “Thanks, Oikawa-san. I’d appreciate that.” 

You shoot Hinata a small smile before departing from him. You help gather up the volleyballs on the floor and place them into the basket. Once you place the last ball in, Tanaka rolls the cart into the storage room. 

“Where are you headed to after this?” Kageyama asks when you go to grab your volleyball bag. “School doesn’t start for two hours.”

“I have my own club practice to get to,” you reply curtly. You switch your shoes but keep your kneepads on. You sling your bags on and hold your jacket and your volleyball shoes with your hands. “Do me a favour and be nicer to Hinata, will you? He wants to get better but with the way you’re acting, it’s not going to help him, and in turn, you.”

With that, you take off and leave the gym in a small fit of anger, leaving a stunned Kageyama behind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> yay!! we finally get to see tooru again after what, five ish chapters? gotta love that sibling bond, am i right? although we are missing the final Oikawa sibling ;))
> 
> there are so many things going on in the chapter i love it. i also had to make the reader an ex libero player, i just have a soft spot for liberos. also a big oof and rip to kageyama, aka the most blunt man to have ever existed
> 
> also sorry if there are any mistakes; it's currently 3:45am and i'm wondering why i'm still awake
> 
> thanks for reading, i'll see you next chapter!


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